.\" Copyright (c) 1988, 1991, 1993
.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
.\" %sccs.include.redist.man%
.\" @(#)getpwent.3 8.1 (Berkeley) %G%
.Nd password database operations
.Fd #include <sys/types.h>
.Fn getpwnam "const char *login"
.Fn setpassent "int stayopen"
operate on the password database file
Each entry in the database is defined by the structure
.Bd -literal -offset indent
char *pw_name; /* user name */
char *pw_passwd; /* encrypted password */
uid_t pw_uid; /* user uid */
gid_t pw_gid; /* user gid */
time_t pw_change; /* password change time */
char *pw_class; /* user access class */
char *pw_gecos; /* Honeywell login info */
char *pw_dir; /* home directory */
char *pw_shell; /* default shell */
time_t pw_expire; /* account expiration */
search the password database for the given login name or user uid,
respectively, always returning the first one encountered.
sequentially reads the password database and is intended for programs
that wish to process the complete list of users.
accomplishes two purposes.
to ``rewind'' to the beginning of the database.
is non-zero, file descriptors are left open, significantly speeding
up subsequent accesses for all of the routines.
(This latter functionality is unnecessary for
as it doesn't close its file descriptors by default.)
It is dangerous for long-running programs to keep the file descriptors
open the database will become out of date if it is updated while the
with an argument of zero.
These routines have been written to ``shadow'' the password file, e.g.
allow only certain programs to have access to the encrypted password.
If the process which calls them has an effective uid of 0, the encrypted
password will be returned, otherwise, the password field of the retuned
structure will point to the string
return a valid pointer to a passwd structure on success
and a null pointer if end-of-file is reached or an error occurs.
return 0 on failure and 1 on success.
.Bl -tag -width /etc/master.passwd -compact
The insecure password database file
The secure password database file
.It Pa /etc/master.passwd
The current password file
A Version 7 format password file
leave their results in an internal static object and return
a pointer to that object. Subsequent calls to
will modify the same object.
are fairly useless in a networked environment and should be
which allowed the specification of alternate password databases,
has been deprecated and is no longer available.