How can I read a password from the command line in Ruby?

Question

I am running Ruby and MySQL on a Windows box.

I have some Ruby code that needs to connect to a MySQL database a perform a select. To connect to the database I need to provide the password among other things.

The Ruby code can display a prompt requesting the password, the user types in the password and hits the Enter key. What I need is for the password, as it is typed, to be displayed as a line of asterisks.

How can I get Ruby to display the typed password as a line of asterisks in the 'dos box'?

Answer 1

To answer my own question, and for the benefit of anyone else who would like to know, there is a Ruby gem called HighLine that you need.

require 'rubygems' require 'highline/import'  def get_password(prompt="Enter Password")    ask(prompt) {|q| q.echo = false} end  thePassword = get_password() 

Answer 2

Poor man's solution:

system "stty -echo" # read password system "stty echo" 

Or using http://raa.ruby-lang.org/project/ruby-password/

The target audience for this library is system administrators who need to write Ruby programs that prompt for, generate, verify and encrypt passwords.

Edit: Whoops I failed to notice that you need this for Windows :(