# 6.12 `getpass` -- Portable password input

The `getpass` module provides two functions:

`getpass`([prompt])
  Prompt the user for a password without echoing. The user is prompted using the string prompt, which defaults to `'Password: '`. Availability: Macintosh, Unix, Windows.

`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.