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<title>8.2 pwd -- The password database</title>
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<H1><A NAME="SECTION0010200000000000000000">
8.2 <tt class="module">pwd</tt> --
         The password database</A>
</H1>

<P>
<A NAME="module-pwd"></A>
<p class="availability">Availability: <span
 class="platform">Unix</span>.</p>

<P>
This module provides access to the <span class="Unix">Unix</span> user account and password
database.  It is available on all <span class="Unix">Unix</span> versions.

<P>
Password database entries are reported as a tuple-like object, whose
attributes correspond to the members of the <code>passwd</code> structure
(Attribute field below, see <code>&lt;pwd.h&gt;</code>):

<P>
<div class="center"><table class="realtable">
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th class="right" >Index</th>
      <th class="left"  >Attribute</th>
      <th class="left"  >Meaning</th>
      </tr>
    </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr><td class="right"  valign="baseline">0</td>
        <td class="left"  ><code>pw_name</code></td>
        <td class="left"  >Login name</td></tr>
    <tr><td class="right"  valign="baseline">1</td>
        <td class="left"  ><code>pw_passwd</code></td>
        <td class="left"  >Optional encrypted password</td></tr>
    <tr><td class="right"  valign="baseline">2</td>
        <td class="left"  ><code>pw_uid</code></td>
        <td class="left"  >Numerical user ID</td></tr>
    <tr><td class="right"  valign="baseline">3</td>
        <td class="left"  ><code>pw_gid</code></td>
        <td class="left"  >Numerical group ID</td></tr>
    <tr><td class="right"  valign="baseline">4</td>
        <td class="left"  ><code>pw_gecos</code></td>
        <td class="left"  >User name or comment field</td></tr>
    <tr><td class="right"  valign="baseline">5</td>
        <td class="left"  ><code>pw_dir</code></td>
        <td class="left"  >User home directory</td></tr>
    <tr><td class="right"  valign="baseline">6</td>
        <td class="left"  ><code>pw_shell</code></td>
        <td class="left"  >User command interpreter</td></tr></tbody>
</table></div>

<P>
The uid and gid items are integers, all others are strings.
<tt class="exception">KeyError</tt> is raised if the entry asked for cannot be found.

<P>
<span class="note"><b class="label">Note:</b>
In traditional <span class="Unix">Unix</span> the field <code>pw_passwd</code> usually
contains a password encrypted with a DES derived algorithm (see module
<tt class="module"><a href="module-crypt.html">crypt</a></tt><a id='l2h-2973' xml:id='l2h-2973'></a>).  However most modern unices
use a so-called <em>shadow password</em> system.  On those unices the
<var>pw_passwd</var> field only contains an asterisk (<code>'*'</code>) or the
letter "<tt class="character">x</tt>" where the encrypted password is stored in a file
<span class="file">/etc/shadow</span> which is not world readable.  Whether the <var>pw_passwd</var>
field contains anything useful is system-dependent.</span>

<P>
It defines the following items:

<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
  <td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-2974' xml:id='l2h-2974' class="function">getpwuid</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
  <td><var>uid</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Return the password database entry for the given numeric user ID.
</dl>

<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
  <td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-2975' xml:id='l2h-2975' class="function">getpwnam</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
  <td><var>name</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Return the password database entry for the given user name.
</dl>

<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
  <td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-2976' xml:id='l2h-2976' class="function">getpwall</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
  <td><var></var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Return a list of all available password database entries, in arbitrary order.
</dl>

<P>
<div class="seealso">
  <p class="heading">See Also:</p>

  <dl compact="compact" class="seemodule">
    <dt>Module <b><tt class="module"><a href="module-grp.html">grp</a></tt>:</b>
    <dd>An interface to the group database, similar to this.
  </dl>
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<span class="release-info">Release 2.4.2, documentation updated on 28 September 2005.</span>
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