From: rsbecker@nexbridge.com
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2021 12:10:41 GMT
Subject: RE: Is getpass(3) really obsolete?
Message-ID: <00d501d7ccbe$0169c340$043d49c0$@nexbridge.com>
In-Reply-To: <73ac38a2-c287-4cc1-4e9c-0f9766ac4c0c@gmail.com>

On October 29, 2021 7:29 AM, Alejandro Colomar wrote:
> On 10/29/21 13:15, Alejandro Colomar wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > As the manual pages says, SUSv2 marked it as LEGACY, and POSIX doesn't
> > have it at all.  The manual page goes further and says "This function
> > is obsolete. Do not use it." in its first lines.
> >
> > But, glibc doesn't seem to have deprecated this function at all.  And
> > it seems to be the most portable way to get a password, even if it's
> > not in POSIX.
> >
> > BSDs have readpassphrase(3), but glibc doesn't, so unless you
> > recommend
> 
> OpenBSD also marks getpass(3) as obsolete and recommends
> readpassphrase(3):
> <https://man.openbsd.org/getpass>
> 
> > using readpassphrase(3) from libbsd, or plan to add it to glibc, I
> > think
> > getpass(3) should be the recommended function in Linux, and therefore
> > we should remove the hard words against it.
> >
> > As a real example, git(1) uses getpass(3).
> > <https://github.com/git/git/blob/master/compat/terminal.c>
> >
> > What are your thoughts?

getpass() is obsolete in POSIX.2. However, some platforms still are on POSIX.1, so replacing it instead of providing a configure detection/switch for it might cause issues.

-Randall