``getpass`` --- Portable password input *************************************** The ``getpass`` module provides two functions: getpass.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*. *stream* defaults to the controlling terminal (/dev/tty) or if that is unavailable to ``sys.stderr`` (this argument is ignored on Windows). If echo free input is unavailable getpass() falls back to printing a warning message to *stream* and reading from ``sys.stdin`` and issuing a ``GetPassWarning``. Availability: Macintosh, Unix, Windows. Changed in version 2.5: The *stream* parameter was added. Changed in version 2.6: On Unix it defaults to using /dev/tty before falling back to ``sys.stdin`` and ``sys.stderr``. Note: If you call getpass from within IDLE, the input may be done in the terminal you launched IDLE from rather than the idle window itself. exception exception getpass.GetPassWarning A ``UserWarning`` subclass issued when password input may be echoed. getpass.getuser() Return the "login name" of the user. Availability: Unix, Windows. This function checks the environment variables **LOGNAME**, **USER**, **LNAME** and **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 ``pwd`` module, otherwise, an exception is raised.