title: Command Line Password Prompt in PHP
body: <p>I'm writing a command line tool to help my web app. It needs a password to connect to the service. I'd like the script to show a password prompt so I don't have to pass it as a command line argument. </p>
  
  <p>That's easy enough, but I'd like it to not echo the password to the screen as it's typed. How can I do this with PHP? </p>
  
  <p>Bonus points for doing it in pure PHP (no <code>system('stty')</code>) and replacing the characters with <code>*</code>. </p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT:</strong></p>
  
  <p>The script will run on a unix like system (linux or mac). The script is written in PHP, and will most likely stay like that.</p>
  
  <p>Also, for the record, the <code>stty</code> way of doing it is:</p>
  
  <pre><code>echo "Password: ";
  system('stty -echo');
  $password = trim(fgets(STDIN));
  system('stty echo');
  // add a new line since the users CR didn't echo
  echo "\n";
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I'd prefer to not have the <code>system()</code> calls in there.</p>