xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/gen/getgrent.3 (revision ae477ca7da55f76d28859e1bd01cd1051e36f28f)
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28.Dd July 31, 2016
29.Dt GETGRENT 3
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm getgrent ,
33.Nm getgrent_r ,
34.Nm getgrnam ,
35.Nm getgrnam_r ,
36.Nm getgrgid ,
37.Nm getgrgid_r ,
38.Nm setgroupent ,
39.Nm setgrent ,
40.Nm endgrent
41.Nd group database operations
42.Sh LIBRARY
43.Lb libc
44.Sh SYNOPSIS
45.In grp.h
46.Ft struct group *
47.Fn getgrent void
48.Ft int
49.Fn getgrent_r "struct group *grp" "char *buffer" "size_t bufsize" "struct group **result"
50.Ft struct group *
51.Fn getgrnam "const char *name"
52.Ft int
53.Fn getgrnam_r "const char *name" "struct group *grp" "char *buffer" "size_t bufsize" "struct group **result"
54.Ft struct group *
55.Fn getgrgid "gid_t gid"
56.Ft int
57.Fn getgrgid_r "gid_t gid" "struct group *grp" "char *buffer" "size_t bufsize" "struct group **result"
58.Ft int
59.Fn setgroupent "int stayopen"
60.Ft void
61.Fn setgrent void
62.Ft void
63.Fn endgrent void
64.Sh DESCRIPTION
65These functions operate on the group database file
66.Pa /etc/group
67which is described
68in
69.Xr group 5 .
70Each line of the database is defined by the structure
71.Vt group
72found in the include
73file
74.In grp.h :
75.Bd -literal -offset indent
76struct group {
77	char	*gr_name;	/* group name */
78	char	*gr_passwd;	/* group password */
79	gid_t	gr_gid;		/* group id */
80	char	**gr_mem;	/* group members */
81};
82.Ed
83.Pp
84The functions
85.Fn getgrnam
86and
87.Fn getgrgid
88search the group database for the given group name pointed to by
89.Fa name
90or the group id pointed to by
91.Fa gid ,
92respectively, returning the first one encountered.
93Identical group
94names or group gids may result in undefined behavior.
95.Pp
96The
97.Fn getgrent
98function
99sequentially reads the group database and is intended for programs
100that wish to step through the complete list of groups.
101.Pp
102The functions
103.Fn getgrent_r ,
104.Fn getgrnam_r ,
105and
106.Fn getgrgid_r
107are thread-safe versions of
108.Fn getgrent ,
109.Fn getgrnam ,
110and
111.Fn getgrgid ,
112respectively.
113The caller must provide storage for the results of the search in
114the
115.Fa grp ,
116.Fa buffer ,
117.Fa bufsize ,
118and
119.Fa result
120arguments.
121When these functions are successful, the
122.Fa grp
123argument will be filled-in, and a pointer to that argument will be
124stored in
125.Fa result .
126If an entry is not found or an error occurs,
127.Fa result
128will be set to
129.Dv NULL .
130.Pp
131These functions will open the group file for reading, if necessary.
132.Pp
133The
134.Fn setgroupent
135function
136opens the file, or rewinds it if it is already open.
137If
138.Fa stayopen
139is non-zero, file descriptors are left open, significantly speeding
140functions subsequent calls.
141This functionality is unnecessary for
142.Fn getgrent
143as it does not close its file descriptors by default.
144It should also
145be noted that it is dangerous for long-running programs to use this
146functionality as the group file may be updated.
147.Pp
148The
149.Fn setgrent
150function
151is identical to
152.Fn setgroupent
153with an argument of zero.
154.Pp
155The
156.Fn endgrent
157function
158closes any open files.
159.Sh RETURN VALUES
160The functions
161.Fn getgrent ,
162.Fn getgrnam ,
163and
164.Fn getgrgid ,
165return a pointer to a group structure on success or
166.Dv NULL
167if the entry is not found or if an error occurs.
168If an error does occur,
169.Va errno
170will be set.
171Note that programs must explicitly set
172.Va errno
173to zero before calling any of these functions if they need to
174distinguish between a non-existent entry and an error.
175The functions
176.Fn getgrent_r ,
177.Fn getgrnam_r ,
178and
179.Fn getgrgid_r
180return 0 if no error occurred, or an error number to indicate failure.
181It is not an error if a matching entry is not found.
182(Thus, if
183.Fa result
184is set to
185.Dv NULL
186and the return value is 0, no matching entry exists.)
187.Pp
188The function
189.Fn setgroupent
190returns the value 1 if successful, otherwise the value
1910 is returned.
192The functions
193.Fn endgrent ,
194.Fn setgrent
195and
196.Fn setgrfile
197have no return value.
198.Sh FILES
199.Bl -tag -width /etc/group -compact
200.It Pa /etc/group
201group database file
202.El
203.Sh COMPATIBILITY
204The historic function
205.Fn setgrfile ,
206which allowed the specification of alternate password databases, has
207been deprecated and is no longer available.
208.Sh SEE ALSO
209.Xr getpwent 3 ,
210.Xr group 5 ,
211.Xr nsswitch.conf 5 ,
212.Xr yp 8
213.Sh STANDARDS
214The
215.Fn getgrent ,
216.Fn getgrnam ,
217.Fn getgrnam_r ,
218.Fn getgrgid ,
219.Fn getgrgid_r
220and
221.Fn endgrent
222functions conform to
223.St -p1003.1-96 .
224The
225.Fn setgrent
226function differs from that standard in that its return type is
227.Vt int
228rather than
229.Vt void .
230.Sh HISTORY
231The functions
232.Fn endgrent ,
233.Fn getgrent ,
234.Fn getgrnam ,
235.Fn getgrgid ,
236and
237.Fn setgrent
238appeared in
239.At v7 .
240The functions
241.Fn setgrfile
242and
243.Fn setgroupent
244appeared in
245.Bx 4.3 Reno .
246The functions
247.Fn getgrent_r ,
248.Fn getgrnam_r ,
249and
250.Fn getgrgid_r
251appeared in
252.Fx 5.1 .
253.Sh BUGS
254The functions
255.Fn getgrent ,
256.Fn getgrnam ,
257.Fn getgrgid ,
258.Fn setgroupent
259and
260.Fn setgrent
261leave their results in an internal static object and return
262a pointer to that object.
263Subsequent calls to
264the same function
265will modify the same object.
266.Pp
267The functions
268.Fn getgrent ,
269.Fn getgrent_r ,
270.Fn endgrent ,
271.Fn setgroupent ,
272and
273.Fn setgrent
274are fairly useless in a networked environment and should be
275avoided, if possible.
276The
277.Fn getgrent
278and
279.Fn getgrent_r
280functions
281make no attempt to suppress duplicate information if multiple
282sources are specified in
283.Xr nsswitch.conf 5 .
284