Python getpass module

When we use terminal based application with some security credentials that use password before execution the application, Then It will be done with Python Getpass module. In this article we are going see how to use Getpass module.

Getpass module provides two function:

• getpass.getpass()
• getpass.getuser()

getpass()

In many programs we need a secure the data or program then this case we use some secret key or passwords to identifying the users. Using getpass() it is possible to accept the password in python program.

Python3

import getpass

pwd = getpass.getpass(prompt = 'Enter the password')
if pwd == 'Admin':
    print('Unlock!')
else:
    print('You entered wrong password')

Output:

Let’s understand this module some example:

getpass with no prompt:

In this example we will see how to get password from users and return the same password with no prompt.

Python3

import getpass

pwd = getpass.getpass()
print("You entered: ", pwd)

Output:

getpass with prompt:

If user want some message before login like security question then we will use prompt attributes in getpass.

Python3

import getpass

pwd = getpass.getpass(prompt = 'What is you last Name: ')
if pwd == 'Kumar':
    print('Unlock! Welcome kumar')
else:
    print('You entered wrong Name')

Output:

getpass with other stream:

This function allow us to stream the password a user enter.

Python3

import getpass
import sys

pwd = getpass.getpass(stream = sys.stderr)
print('Entered Password: ', pwd)

Output:

getuser()

This function return system login name of the user. It checks the environment variable of your computer and fetch the user name and return as a string and if it can not able to find the environment variable then exception is raised.

Example 1:

Here we will get username of our computer with getuser().

Python3

import getpass

print(getpass.getuser())

Output:

Example 2:

Here we will get username and password with getuser() and getpass().

Python3

import getpass

user_name = getpass.getuser()
pass_word = getpass.getpass("Enter password: ")

print("User name: ", user_name)
print("Your password :", pass_word)

Output: