gno/usr.man/man3/getpwent.3

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.\"     From: @(#)getpwent.3	8.2 (Berkeley) 12/11/93
.\"
.TH GETPWENT 3 "September 20, 1994" GNO "Library Routines"
.SH NAME
.BR getpwent ,
.BR getpwnam ,
.BR getpwuid ,
.BR setpassent ,
.BR setpwent ,
.BR endpwent
\- password database operations
.SH SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/types.h>
.br
#include <pwd.h>
.sp 1
struct passwd *\fBgetpwent\fR (void);
.br
struct passwd *\fBgetpwnam\fR (const char *\fIlogin\fR);
.br
struct passwd *\fBgetpwuid\fR (uid_t \fIuid\fR);
.br
int \fBsetpassent\fR (int \fIstayopen\fR);
.br
int \fBsetpwent\fR (void);
.br
void \fBendpwent\fR (void);
.SH DESCRIPTION
These functions
operate on the password database file
which is described
in
.BR passwd (5).
Each entry in the database is defined by the structure
.BR passwd
found in the include
file <pwd.h>:
.nf

struct passwd {
	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;	/* real name */
	char	*pw_dir;	/* home directory */
	char	*pw_shell;	/* default shell */
	time_t	pw_expire;	/* account expiration */
};

.fi
.LP
The functions
.BR getpwnam 
and
.BR getpwuid 
search the password database for the given login name or user uid,
respectively, always returning the first one encountered.
.LP
The
.BR getpwent 
function
sequentially reads the password database and is intended for programs
that wish to process the complete list of users.
.LP
The
.BR setpassent 
function
accomplishes two purposes.
First, it causes
.BR getpwent 
to ``rewind'' to the beginning of the database.
Additionally, if
.I stayopen
is non-zero, file descriptors are left open, significantly speeding
up subsequent accesses for all of the routines.
(This latter functionality is unnecessary for
.BR getpwent 
as it doesn't close its file descriptors by default.)
.LP
It is dangerous for long-running programs to keep the file descriptors
open as the database will become out of date if it is updated while the
program is running.
.LP
The
.BR setpwent 
function
is identical to
.BR setpassent 
with an argument of zero.
.LP
The
.BR endpwent 
function
closes any open files.
.LP
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 returned
structure will point to the string
.BR * .
.SH YP/NIS INTERACTION
When the
.BR yp (4)
password database is enabled, the
.BR getpwnam 
and
.BR getpwuid 
functions use the YP maps
.BR passwd.byname
and
.BR passwd.byuid ,
respectively, if the requested password entry is not found in the 
local database.  The
.BR getpwent 
function will step through the YP map
.BR passwd.byname
if the entire map is enabled as described in
.BR passwd (5).
.SH RETURN VALUES
The functions
.BR getpwent ,
.BR getpwnam ,
and
.BR getpwuid ,
return a valid pointer to a passwd structure on success
and a null pointer if end-of-file is reached or an error occurs.
The functions
.BR setpassent 
and
.BR setpwent 
return 0 on failure and 1 on success.
The
.BR endpwent 
function
has no return value.
.SH FILES
.IP \fB/etc/pwd.db\fR
The insecure password database file
.IP \fB/etc/spwd.db\fR
The secure password database file
.IP \fB/etc/master.passwd\fR
The current password file
.IP \fB/etc/passwd\fR
A Version 7 format password file
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR getlogin (2),
.BR getgrent (3),
.BR yp (4),
.BR passwd (5),
.BR pwd_mkdb (8),
.BR vipw (8)
.SH HISTORY
The
.BR getpwent ,
.BR getpwnam ,
.BR getpwuid ,
.BR setpwent,
and
.BR endpwent
functions appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX.  The
.BR setpassent
function appeared in 4.3 Reno.
.SH COMPATIBILITY
The historic function
.BR setpwfile (3),
which allowed the specification of alternate password databases,
has been deprecated and is no longer available.
.SH BUGS
The functions
.BR getpwent ,
.BR getpwnam ,
and
.BR getpwuid ,
leave their results in an internal static object and return
a pointer to that object. Subsequent calls to
the same function
will modify the same object.