# 14.6 `getpass` -- Portable password input

The `getpass` module provides two functions:

`getpass`( | [prompt[, stream]])

  Prompt the user for a password without echoing. The user is prompted using the string prompt, which defaults to `'Password: '`. On Unix, the prompt is written to the file-like object stream, which defaults to `sys.stdout` (this argument is ignored on Windows).

  Availability: Macintosh, Unix, Windows. Changed in version 2.5: The stream parameter was added.

`getuser`( | )

  Return the ``login name'' of the user. Availability: Unix, Windows.

  This function checks the environment variables LOGNAME, USER, LNAME and USERNAME, in order, and returns the value of the first one which is set to a non-empty string. If none are set, the login name from the password database is returned on systems which support the `pwd` module, otherwise, an exception is raised.