Prompting for Passwords - obscuring input

[siri2403]

hi
we are working on a program which has to read password from user
for security each character in the password must be echoed as *

1 print "enter passwd\n";
2 system('stty','-echo');
3 chop($passwd=<stdin>);
4 system('stty','echo');
5 open(myfile,'>>./c');
6 print myfile "$passwd\n";
7 close (myfile);

this is the code for hiding password completely
could u please help us with *
thanks inadvance

[miller]

cpan IO::Prompt

use IO::Prompt;
 
my $passwd = prompt -echo => '*';
 

- Miller

[siri2403]

Can't locate IO/Prompt.pm in @INC (@INC contains:..................
thats the error its givin is it the prob of the perl compiler
anything tat could b done to resolve it
we r working on unix platform

[numberwhun]

Yes, you are going to have to install the module IO::Prompt. That is the error you receive when the module you are trying to use is not installed.

ie: perl -MCPAN -e 'install IO::Prompt'

Regards,

Jeff

[prn]

Can't locate IO/Prompt.pm in @INC (@INC contains:..................
thats the error its givin is it the prob of the perl compiler
anything tat could b done to resolve it
we r working on unix platform

That's because IO::Prompt is a CPAN module. It is not part of the standard Perl distro. That's why miller gave you a link. You have to install it separately.

The easiest way to install it is (preferably as root):

# perl -MCPAN -e shell
cpan> install IO::Prompt
...
cpan> quit

Assuming you have not used the CPAN module before, you will probably have to configure it. I just checked this on a Linux box where I had not used the CPAN module previously and almost all the questions in the configuration prompts were fairly obvious. It did prompt for the location of ncftpget, which I did not have installed, so I downloaded and installed it. I'm not sure that I had to, but it seemed like a good idea.

Once IO::Prompt is installed, miller's example code will work just fine.

HTH,
Paul

[numberwhun]

That's because IO::Prompt is a CPAN module. It is not part of the standard Perl distro. That's why miller gave you a link. You have to install it separately.

The easiest way to install it is (preferably as root):

# perl -MCPAN -e shell
cpan> install IO::Prompt
...
cpan> quit

Assuming you have not used the CPAN module before, you will probably have to configure it. I just checked this on a Linux box where I had not used the CPAN module previously and almost all the questions in the configuration prompts were fairly obvious. It did prompt for the location of ncftpget, which I did not have installed, so I downloaded and installed it. I'm not sure that I had to, but it seemed like a good idea.

Once IO::Prompt is installed, miller's example code will work just fine.

HTH,
Paul

Sure, I see how you are... just step ALL over me. :-)

Jeff

[miller]

Some notes about IO::Prompt:

• It is platform dependent on unix based systems as it has hardcoded access to /dev/tty
• It's test suite is minimal, so it will install successfully under ActivePerl but will not work. I have written to the module maintainer about this issue. However, it does have a large set of examples included as part of its distribution.
• It was suggested by the book "Perl Best Practices"; Chapter 10: I/O; Power Prompting.

- Miller

[prn]

Sure, I see how you are... just step ALL over me. :-)

Jeff

Sorry, Jeff. I was composing mine when you posted. If I had seen yours first, I would have decided the question was already answered and left it alone. I'm just kind of compulsive (some people might have a different name for it ;-) ) sometimes.

Paul

[numberwhun]

No worries! I was just busin' on ya. I chalked it up to re-enforcement of what I said. :-)

Regards,

Jeff