Hello. When I type a password into terminal I see a string of asterisks. This is a bit quirky and I have been wondering: why? Well now I have week of mostly-free time so I decided to indulge my curiosity over such a trivial thing and see if something can be done about it.
A quick search led me to believe that I could find the answer by looking at /etc/sudoers line Defaults env_reset but if I'm looking at the right place there is nothing appended to it to indicate password feedback like the article suggested.
I did notice a directory /etc/sudoers.d/ with a file called pwfeedback (which displays as 'Defaults pwfeedback') and a README.
Is this pwfeedback the problem? The README suggests as long as I keep 1 file in sudoers.d/ (the README) things are ok, so is it safe to delete pwfeedback? It also says it won't parse a file ending in ~ or that contain a ' . ' character. Would that be a better way to solve the issue (if this file is even the issue)?
Thanks for your time, it's a bit trivial but it does throw me off enough that I wanted to adjust the behavior if possible.
An edit to clarify: it is the aberration of having characters appear as I typed a password into terminal that was throwing me off. It is unnatural. Every time I see it, it startles me enough that I type my password wrong the first time. No doubt I will become used to it eventually. I am not looking for a way to reveal my password's actual characters instead of asterisks.
EDIT: I forgot to update the results. I did not actually delete it, but as the correct answer says, you can. I appended .default at the end. Now blessed silence when I enter passwords.