text: """Wrapper to the POSIX crypt library call and associated functionality."""
  
  import _crypt
  import string as _string
  from random import SystemRandom as _SystemRandom
  from collections import namedtuple as _namedtuple
  
  
  _saltchars = _string.ascii_letters + _string.digits + './'
  _sr = _SystemRandom()
  
  
  class _Method(_namedtuple('_Method', 'name ident salt_chars total_size')):
  
      """Class representing a salt method per the Modular Crypt Format or the
      legacy 2-character crypt method."""
  
      def __repr__(self):
          return '<crypt.METHOD_{}>'.format(self.name)
  
  
  def mksalt(method=None):
      """Generate a salt for the specified method.
  
      If not specified, the strongest available method will be used.
  
      """
      if method is None:
          method = methods[0]
      s = '${}$'.format(method.ident) if method.ident else ''
      s += ''.join(_sr.choice(_saltchars) for char in range(method.salt_chars))
      return s
  
  
  def crypt(word, salt=None):
      """Return a string representing the one-way hash of a password, with a salt
      prepended.
  
      If ``salt`` is not specified or is ``None``, the strongest
      available method will be selected and a salt generated.  Otherwise,
      ``salt`` may be one of the ``crypt.METHOD_*`` values, or a string as
      returned by ``crypt.mksalt()``.
  
      """
      if salt is None or isinstance(salt, _Method):
          salt = mksalt(salt)
      return _crypt.crypt(word, salt)
  
  
  #  available salting/crypto methods
  METHOD_CRYPT = _Method('CRYPT', None, 2, 13)
  METHOD_MD5 = _Method('MD5', '1', 8, 34)
  METHOD_SHA256 = _Method('SHA256', '5', 16, 63)
  METHOD_SHA512 = _Method('SHA512', '6', 16, 106)
  
  methods = []
  for _method in (METHOD_SHA512, METHOD_SHA256, METHOD_MD5):
      _result = crypt('', _method)
      if _result and len(_result) == _method.total_size:
          methods.append(_method)
  methods.append(METHOD_CRYPT)
  del _result, _method
  