Debian Bug report logs - #644261
manpages-dev: getpass(3) states obsolescence but no replacement

Toggle useless messages

Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Erik Saule <erik.saule@bmi.osu.edu>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: manpages-dev: getpass(3) states obsolescence but no replacement

Date: Tue, 04 Oct 2011 10:54:42 -0400

Package: manpages-dev
Version: 3.27-1
Severity: normal


Dear Debian package maintainer,

The man page for getpass(3) states "This function is obsolete.  Do not
use it.". However, it does not state any alternative way of obtaining
a similar high-level behavior.

Recall that getpass allows to read a password from a terminal without
having the password displayed on the terminal. Alternative ways have
been pointed out on stack overflow[1].

I do not suggest to present a full replacement of the getpass
function. But pointing the reader to the ECHO mask of tcgetattr(3)
would most likely cover the main use cases.

Thank you very much,

Erik

[1] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6856635/hide-password-input-on-terminal


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 6.0.2
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages manpages-dev depends on:
ii  manpages                      3.27-1     Manual pages about using a GNU/Lin

manpages-dev recommends no packages.

Versions of packages manpages-dev suggests:
ii  man-db [man-browser]          2.5.7-8    on-line manual pager

-- no debconf information

Message #10 received at 644261-done@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Simon Paillard <spaillard@debian.org>

To: Erik Saule <erik.saule@bmi.osu.edu>, 644261-done@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#644261: manpages-dev: getpass(3) states obsolescence but no replacement

Date: Mon, 5 Aug 2013 23:54:40 +0200

Version: 3.51-1 

On Tue, Oct 04, 2011 at 10:54:42AM -0400, Erik Saule wrote:
> Package: manpages-dev
> Version: 3.27-1
> Severity: normal
> 
> 
> The man page for getpass(3) states "This function is obsolete.  Do not
> use it.". However, it does not state any alternative way of obtaining
> a similar high-level behavior.

Fixed in upstream 3.50
http://git.kernel.org/cgit/docs/man-pages/man-pages.git/commit/?id=63bed6ae25caa3e4
 
> Recall that getpass allows to read a password from a terminal without
> having the password displayed on the terminal. Alternative ways have
> been pointed out on stack overflow[1].
> 
> I do not suggest to present a full replacement of the getpass
> function. But pointing the reader to the ECHO mask of tcgetattr(3)
> would most likely cover the main use cases.
> 
> Thank you very much,
> 
> Erik
> 
> [1] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6856635/hide-password-input-on-terminal
 

-- 
Simon Paillard

Send a report that this bug log contains spam.