Silent input with read -s (passwords) in Bash Scripting - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Silent input with read -s (passwords)

📖 Scenario: You are creating a simple script to ask a user for their username and password. For security, the password should not be shown on the screen as the user types it.

🎯 Goal: Build a bash script that asks for a username and a password. The password input should be silent (hidden) using read -s. Then display a message showing the username and a confirmation that the password was received.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a variable username to store the user's input.

Create a variable password to store the user's input silently using read -s.

Print a message showing the username and a confirmation that the password was entered.

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Scripts often need to ask users for passwords without showing them on screen to keep them safe.

💼 Career

Knowing how to securely get passwords in scripts is important for system administrators and developers automating tasks.

1

DATA SETUP: Ask for the username

Write a line to ask the user to enter their username and store it in a variable called username using read.

Bash Scripting

# Ask the user to enter their username and save it in 'username'
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use read -p "Enter your username: " username to prompt and save input.

2

CONFIGURATION: Prepare to read password silently

Write a line to prompt the user to enter their password silently and save it in a variable called password using read -s.

Bash Scripting

read -p "Enter your username: " username
# Ask the user to enter their password silently and save it in 'password'
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use read -s -p "Enter your password: " password to read password silently.

3

CORE LOGIC: Add a newline after password input

Add a line to print a newline after the silent password input so the next output appears on a new line.

Bash Scripting

read -p "Enter your username: " username
read -s -p "Enter your password: " password
# Print a newline after password input
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use echo with no arguments to print a newline.

4

OUTPUT: Display username and password confirmation

Write a line to print: Username: [username] and Password received. using echo and the variable username.

Bash Scripting

read -p "Enter your username: " username
read -s -p "Enter your password: " password

echo
# Print username and confirmation message
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use echo "Username: $username" and echo "Password received." to show output.