.\" $OpenBSD: getpwent.3,v 1.24 2009/06/01 21:52:03 millert Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 1988, 1991, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .Dd $Mdocdate: June 1 2009 $ .Dt GETPWENT 3 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm getpwent , .Nm setpwent , .Nm endpwent .Nd sequential password database access .Sh SYNOPSIS .Fd #include .Fd #include .Ft struct passwd * .Fn getpwent void .Ft void .Fn setpwent void .Ft void .Fn endpwent void .Sh DESCRIPTION These functions operate on the password database file which is described in .Xr passwd 5 . Each entry in the database is defined by the structure .Li struct passwd found in the include file .Aq Pa pwd.h : .Bd -literal -offset indent 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; /* Honeywell login info */ char *pw_dir; /* home directory */ char *pw_shell; /* default shell */ time_t pw_expire; /* account expiration */ }; .Ed .Pp The .Fn getpwent function sequentially reads the password database and is intended for programs that wish to process the complete list of users. .Pp 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. Furthermore, programs that run child processes should be careful to call .Fn endpwent to close these descriptors before calling .Xr execve 2 or .Xr system 3 . .Pp .Fn setpwent causes .Fn getpwent to .Dq rewind to the beginning of the database. .Pp The .Fn endpwent function closes any file descriptors opened by .Fn setpwent or .Fn getpwent . .Pp These routines have been written to .Dq shadow the password file, that is, allow only certain programs to have access to the encrypted password. If the process which calls them has an effective UID of 0 or has the .Dq _shadow group in its group vector, the encrypted password will be returned, otherwise, the password field of the returned structure will point to the string .Ql * . .Sh YP SUPPORT If YP is active, .Fn getpwent also uses the .Pa master.passwd.byname YP map (if available) or the .Pa passwd.byname YP map. This is in addition to the passwd file, and respects the order of both normal and YP entries in the passwd file. .Sh RETURN VALUES The .Fn getpwent function returns a valid pointer to a passwd structure on success or a null pointer if end-of-file is reached or an error occurs. .Pp The .Fn endpwent and .Fn setpwent functions have no return value. .Sh FILES .Bl -tag -width /etc/master.passwd -compact .It Pa /etc/pwd.db insecure password database file .It Pa /etc/spwd.db secure password database file .It Pa /etc/master.passwd current password file .It Pa /etc/passwd a Version 7 format password file .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr getlogin 2 , .Xr getgrent 3 , .Xr getgrouplist 3 , .Xr getpwnam 3 , .Xr pw_dup 3 , .Xr passwd 5 , .Xr Makefile.yp 8 , .Xr pwd_mkdb 8 , .Xr vipw 8 , .Xr yp 8 .Sh HISTORY The .Fn getpwent , .Fn setpwent , and .Fn endpwent functions appeared in .At v7 . .Pp The historic function .Xr setpwfile 3 , which allowed the specification of alternate password databases, has been deprecated and is no longer available. .Sh BUGS The .Fn getpwent function stores its results in an internal static buffer and returns a pointer to that buffer. Subsequent calls to .Fn getpwent , .Fn getpwnam , or .Fn getpwuid will overwrite the same buffer. .Pp The routines .Fn getpwent , .Fn endpwent , and .Fn setpwent are fairly useless in a networked environment and should be avoided, if possible.