:mod:`getpass` --- Portable password input ========================================== .. module:: getpass :synopsis: Portable reading of passwords and retrieval of the userid. .. moduleauthor:: Piers Lauder .. sectionauthor:: Fred L. Drake, Jr. .. % Windows (& Mac?) support by Guido van Rossum. The :mod:`getpass` module provides two functions: .. function:: getpass([prompt[, stream]]) Prompt the user for a password without echoing. The user is prompted using the string *prompt*, which defaults to ``'Password: '``. On Unix, the prompt is written to the file-like object *stream*, which defaults to ``sys.stdout`` (this argument is ignored on Windows). Availability: Macintosh, Unix, Windows. .. versionchanged:: 2.5 The *stream* parameter was added. .. function:: getuser() Return the "login name" of the user. Availability: Unix, Windows. This function checks the environment variables :envvar:`LOGNAME`, :envvar:`USER`, :envvar:`LNAME` and :envvar:`USERNAME`, in order, and returns the value of the first one which is set to a non-empty string. If none are set, the login name from the password database is returned on systems which support the :mod:`pwd` module, otherwise, an exception is raised.