#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use Term::ReadKey;

ReadMode 'noecho';
my $password = ReadLine 0;
chomp($password);
ReadMode 'normal';

# and use $password here...
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Arjen

From the docs

use Term::ReadPassword;

my $password = read_password('password: ');
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-- 
Joost       downtime n. The period during which a system
            is error-free and immune from user input.
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Though, I've tried this before, I downloaded both the modules (Term::ReadKey, Term::ReadPassword) from CPAN...
They dont seem to work when i run them. I'm able to 'use' it but the modules don work. I have active perl 5.8 for windows.
... but it seems that once you have it properly installed, its easy after that...
Any Alternatives?...thanks!

Downloading them is not. You have to install them.

How do you do that?

Well, if you prefer to do it by hand as you evidently do, you should read the README file that is part of the tarball (.tar.gz file) you downloaded from CPAN.

First you unpack it with gunzip and tar, then:

 perl Makefile.PL
 make
 make test
 make install
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For the final, make install step, you need to be root.

--
Regards,
Helgi Briem
helgi AT decode DOT is

For Active State's perl on Windows, there is a bundled module installer. I would recommend trying to use that to get the modules properly set up to use in AS perl.

Abigail

Note that the author's original question had nothing to do about encrypting strings :P

---

My bad, Abigail-II's reply below shows how I was a little too quick to post. It seemed odd to me that Abigail-II would post irrelevant information, as I know how well she knows her stuff :)

---

If the above content is missing any vital points or you feel that any of the information is misleading, incorrect or irrelevant, please feel free to downvote the post. At the same time, please reply to this node or /msg me to inform me as to what is wrong with the post, so that I may update the node to the best of my ability.

So? Did you actually bother to look up what perldoc -f crypt displays? Or did it give you more satisfaction to write a stupid reply than to do some trivial research. Let me quote it for you:

               Here's an example that makes sure that whoever
               runs this program knows their own password:

                   $pwd = (getpwuid($<))[1];

                   system "stty -echo";
                   print "Password: ";
                   chomp($word = <STDIN>);
                   print "\n";
                   system "stty echo";

                   if (crypt($word, $pwd) ne $pwd) {
                       die "Sorry...\n";
                   } else {
                       print "ok\n";
                   }
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Abigail

I wrote this ages ago for a few quick scripts. It's less than slick, for example it uses global variables, but I found it useful. The Win32::Console module this script uses should be installed with AS.

Regards,
Dom.

<input type="password" name="password" size="20">
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The explanation is that this case is getting the password from a command line and not via a web form.