getpass not working on Windows

[crbinz]

Base.getpass does not appear to accept input when used on Windows (64-bit Windows 7):

               _
   _       _ _(_)_     |  A fresh approach to technical computing
  (_)     | (_) (_)    |  Documentation: https://docs.julialang.org
   _ _   _| |_  __ _   |  Type "?" for help, "]?" for Pkg help.
  | | | | | | |/ _` |  |
  | | |_| | | | (_| |  |  Version 0.7.0 (2018-08-08 06:46 UTC)
 _/ |\__'_|_|_|\__'_|  |  Official http://julialang.org/ release
|__/                   |  x86_64-w64-mingw32

julia> Base.getpass("Test: ")
Test: : SecretBuffer("*******")

julia> read(ans,String)
┌ Warning: a SecretBuffer was `shred!`ed by the GC; use `shred!` manually after use to minimize exposure.
└ @ Base secretbuffer.jl:169
""

Also tested under v1.0 with the same result. I've tried regular keyboard input, and pasting from the clipboard. Base.winprompt works as expected.

ref: https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-i-use-getpass/13880

[mbauman]

Thanks for the report, and sorry about this! Looks like we're missing a seekstart here. Does the following work for you?

s = Base.getpass("Test: ")
seekstart(s)
read(s, String)

In general, winprompt is a much better solution on Windows and will be more secure.

[crbinz]

That does indeed do the trick, and noted about winprompt.

[StefanKarpinski]

In general, winprompt is a much better solution on Windows and will be more secure.

Can we make Base.getpass use winprompt on Windows then?

[mbauman]

I really wanted to unify these, but it's just a very different API — winprompt pops up a GUI window and asks for a username and password pair. As far as I'm aware, Windows doesn't expose an API for secure entry from STDIN, so we're emulating one to the best of our ability.

[giordano]

Can this be closed?

[KristofferC]

#28832