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Why is Terminal in OSX 10.10 (Yosemite) is displaying a dot in the field of password everytime it asks for a password. I did not receive something similar in the previews version of OSX. Is it an change by Apple, or is it an indication that my passwords are being logged?

Example:

enter image description here

Regards, Hex

Community
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Hex
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1 Answers1

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This cursor image is meant to evoke the bullets seen when entering passwords in OS X, but it is not an actual character.

It's a cursor variant that indicates that you’re at a password (or similar) prompt and that your input will not be echoed. Specifically, it means that the tty is currently in canonical (line-buffered) mode and echo is off.

Perhaps more importantly, it indicates that the input methods are currently restricted to Roman-only in order to avoid displaying your password in the input-method buffer, which normally is either displayed in a separate window or inline within the terminal before you commit the input and send it to the tty. Resetting the terminal with Shell > Send Reset will remove this restriction if you need to enter other characters.

Chris Page
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