Here’s a little script for reading a ‘password’ field using dots for the typed characters.
#!/bin/bash -p old_settings=$(stty -g) trap 'stty $old_settings' EXIT HUP echo -n "Enter Password: " stty raw -echo ichr=. value= oifs="$IFS" IFS= while [[ $ichr != "" ]]; do read -n1 ichr [[ -n $ichr ]] && echo -n '.' value="$value$ichr" done IFS="$oifs" stty -raw echo echo echo "Value: '$value'"