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Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 17.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 18.\" without specific prior written permission. 19.\" 20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 21.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 22.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 23.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 24.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 25.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 26.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 27.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 28.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 29.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 30.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 31.\" 32.\" From: @(#)getpwent.3 8.2 (Berkeley) 12/11/93 33.\" $FreeBSD$ 34.\" 35.Dd September 20, 1994 36.Dt GETPWENT 3 37.Os 38.Sh NAME 39.Nm getpwent , 40.Nm getpwnam , 41.Nm getpwuid , 42.Nm setpassent , 43.Nm setpwent , 44.Nm endpwent 45.Nd password database operations 46.Sh LIBRARY 47.Lb libc 48.Sh SYNOPSIS 49.In sys/types.h 50.In pwd.h 51.Ft struct passwd * 52.Fn getpwent void 53.Ft struct passwd * 54.Fn getpwnam "const char *login" 55.Ft struct passwd * 56.Fn getpwuid "uid_t uid" 57.Ft int 58.Fn setpassent "int stayopen" 59.Ft void 60.Fn setpwent void 61.Ft void 62.Fn endpwent void 63.Sh DESCRIPTION 64These functions 65operate on the password database file 66which is described 67in 68.Xr passwd 5 . 69Each entry in the database is defined by the structure 70.Ar passwd 71found in the include 72file 73.Aq Pa pwd.h : 74.Bd -literal -offset indent 75struct passwd { 76 char *pw_name; /* user name */ 77 char *pw_passwd; /* encrypted password */ 78 uid_t pw_uid; /* user uid */ 79 gid_t pw_gid; /* user gid */ 80 time_t pw_change; /* password change time */ 81 char *pw_class; /* user access class */ 82 char *pw_gecos; /* Honeywell login info */ 83 char *pw_dir; /* home directory */ 84 char *pw_shell; /* default shell */ 85 time_t pw_expire; /* account expiration */ 86 int pw_fields; /* internal: fields filled in */ 87}; 88.Ed 89.Pp 90The functions 91.Fn getpwnam 92and 93.Fn getpwuid 94search the password database for the given login name or user uid, 95respectively, always returning the first one encountered. 96.Pp 97The 98.Fn getpwent 99function 100sequentially reads the password database and is intended for programs 101that wish to process the complete list of users. 102.Pp 103The 104.Fn setpassent 105function 106accomplishes two purposes. 107First, it causes 108.Fn getpwent 109to ``rewind'' to the beginning of the database. 110Additionally, if 111.Fa stayopen 112is non-zero, file descriptors are left open, significantly speeding 113up subsequent accesses for all of the routines. 114(This latter functionality is unnecessary for 115.Fn getpwent 116as it doesn't close its file descriptors by default.) 117.Pp 118It is dangerous for long-running programs to keep the file descriptors 119open as the database will become out of date if it is updated while the 120program is running. 121.Pp 122The 123.Fn setpwent 124function 125is identical to 126.Fn setpassent 127with an argument of zero. 128.Pp 129The 130.Fn endpwent 131function 132closes any open files. 133.Pp 134These routines have been written to ``shadow'' the password file, e.g.\& 135allow only certain programs to have access to the encrypted password. 136If the process which calls them has an effective uid of 0, the encrypted 137password will be returned, otherwise, the password field of the returned 138structure will point to the string 139.Ql * . 140.Sh RETURN VALUES 141The functions 142.Fn getpwent , 143.Fn getpwnam , 144and 145.Fn getpwuid , 146return a valid pointer to a passwd structure on success 147and a null pointer if end-of-file is reached or an error occurs. 148The 149.Fn setpassent 150function returns 0 on failure and 1 on success. 151The 152.Fn endpwent 153and 154.Fn setpwent 155functions 156have no return value. 157.Sh FILES 158.Bl -tag -width /etc/master.passwd -compact 159.It Pa /etc/pwd.db 160The insecure password database file 161.It Pa /etc/spwd.db 162The secure password database file 163.It Pa /etc/master.passwd 164The current password file 165.It Pa /etc/passwd 166A Version 7 format password file 167.El 168.Sh SEE ALSO 169.Xr getlogin 2 , 170.Xr getgrent 3 , 171.Xr yp 4 , 172.Xr nsswitch.conf 5 , 173.Xr passwd 5 , 174.Xr pwd_mkdb 8 , 175.Xr vipw 8 176.Sh HISTORY 177The 178.Fn getpwent , 179.Fn getpwnam , 180.Fn getpwuid , 181.Fn setpwent , 182and 183.Fn endpwent 184functions appeared in 185.At v7 . 186The 187.Fn setpassent 188function appeared in 189.Bx 4.3 Reno . 190.Sh COMPATIBILITY 191The historic function 192.Xr setpwfile 3 , 193which allowed the specification of alternate password databases, 194has been deprecated and is no longer available. 195.Sh BUGS 196The functions 197.Fn getpwent , 198.Fn getpwnam , 199and 200.Fn getpwuid , 201leave their results in an internal static object and return 202a pointer to that object. 203Subsequent calls to 204the same function 205will modify the same object. 206.Pp 207The functions 208.Fn getpwent , 209.Fn endpwent , 210.Fn setpassent , 211and 212.Fn setpwent 213are fairly useless in a networked environment and should be 214avoided, if possible. 215.Fn getpwent 216makes no attempt to suppress duplicate information if multiple 217sources are specified in 218.Xr nsswitch.conf 5 . 219