GETPW(3) Linux Programmer's Manual GETPW(3)

getpw - Re-construct password line entry

#define _GNU_SOURCE
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <pwd.h>

int getpw(uid_t uid, char *buf);

The getpw() function re-constructs the password line entry for the given user ID uid in the buffer buf. The returned buffer contains a line of format

name:passwd:uid:gid:gecos:dir:shell

The passwd structure is defined in <pwd.h> as follows:


struct passwd {

    char   *pw_name;       /* user name */

    char   *pw_passwd;     /* user password */

    uid_t   pw_uid;        /* user ID */

    gid_t   pw_gid;        /* group ID */

    char   *pw_gecos;      /* real name */

    char   *pw_dir;        /* home directory */

    char   *pw_shell;      /* shell program */
};

The getpw() function returns 0 on success, or -1 if an error occurs.

No user corresponding to uid.
Insufficient memory to allocate passwd structure.

/etc/passwd
password database file

SVr2.

The getpw() function is dangerous as it may overflow the provided buffer buf. It is obsoleted by getpwuid(3).

endpwent(3), fgetpwent(3), getpwent(3), getpwnam(3), getpwuid(3), putpwent(3), setpwent(3), passwd(5)

This page is part of release 2.78 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

2007-12-12 GNU

Different Versions of this Page: