[Python-Dev] getpass and stdin

[Leif Walsh]

On Tue, Feb 26, 2008 at 12:43 PM, Shaya Potter <spotter at cs.columbia.edu> wrote:
>  the -p <PASSWD> option is not good on multi user systems
>  the -p <PASSFILE> option is not particularly good on NFS based systems
>  (have to trust every user on every machine with access to NFS share)

You seem somehow both worried about security, yet too lazy to type in
your password.  I think at some point, one of those concerns is going
to have to give.

>  and now, assuming what you say is part of the design behind the code
>
>  what's the point of this part of the code
>
>
>   >>      try:
>   >>          fd = sys.stdin.fileno()
>   >>      except:
>   >>          return default_getpass(prompt)
>   >>
>
>  i.e. the exception handler, default_getpass() is always going to read
>  from stdin at the end of the day.
>
>      line = sys.stdin.readline()
>
>  I'm assuming I'm missing something

Sorry, I only know my way around the libc version of getpass(), not
the python one.  In that version, typically we try to open /dev/tty
for reading, and if that fails, we fall back to stdin.  I presume
that's what's going on here, but the first line appears to be getting
stdin anyway, so I'm no longer sure.  That said, why don't you just
use default_getpass() in your code, if it reads from stdin to begin
with?

-- 
Cheers,
Leif