Hide password input on terminal

Question

I want to mask my password while writing it with *. I use Linux GCC for this code. I know one solution is to use getch() function like this

Answer 1

You might use ncurses.h if it is not necessary to be portable onto Windows for that, but here is some kind of a more "portable" version:

If it is not necessery to be portable ill point you to a ncurses solution

portablegetch.h

/*portablegetch.h*/
#ifndef PGETCH
#define PGETCH
#ifdef __unix__
#include 
#include 

static struct termios n_term;
static struct termios o_term;

static int
cbreak(int fd) 
{
   if((tcgetattr(fd, &o_term)) == -1)
      return -1;
   n_term = o_term;
   n_term.c_lflag = n_term.c_lflag & ~(ECHO|ICANON);
   n_term.c_cc[VMIN] = 1;
   n_term.c_cc[VTIME]= 0;
   if((tcsetattr(fd, TCSAFLUSH, &n_term)) == -1)
      return -1;
   return 1;
}

int 
getch() 
{
   int cinput;

   if(cbreak(STDIN_FILENO) == -1) {
      fprintf(stderr, "cbreak failure, exiting \n");
      exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
   }
   cinput = getchar();
   tcsetattr(STDIN_FILENO, TCSANOW, &o_term);

   return cinput;
}

#elif _MSC_VER  || __WIN32__ || __MS_DOS__
  #include 
#endif
#endif

And the c-file

whatever.c

#include 
#include 
#include "portablegetch.h"

int 
main(int argc, char **argv) 
{
  int input;

  printf("Please Enter your Password:\t");

  while(( input=getch() ) != '\n')
        printf("*");
  printf("\n");

  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

That should fit to your problem.

Hope that helps.