.\" $OpenBSD: getpwnam.3,v 1.12 2017/10/17 22:47:58 schwarze 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: October 17 2017 $ .Dt GETPWNAM 3 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm getpwnam , .Nm getpwuid , .Nm getpwnam_r , .Nm getpwuid_r , .Nm getpwnam_shadow , .Nm getpwuid_shadow , .Nm setpassent .Nd password database operations .Sh SYNOPSIS .In pwd.h .Ft struct passwd * .Fn getpwnam "const char *login" .Ft struct passwd * .Fn getpwuid "uid_t uid" .Ft int .Fn getpwnam_r "const char *login" "struct passwd *pwstore" "char *buf" "size_t bufsize" "struct passwd **result" .Ft int .Fn getpwuid_r "uid_t uid" "struct passwd *pwstore" "char *buf" "size_t bufsize" "struct passwd **result" .Ft struct passwd * .Fn getpwnam_shadow "const char *login" .Ft struct passwd * .Fn getpwuid_shadow "uid_t uid" .Ft int .Fn setpassent "int stayopen" .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 .In 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 functions .Fn getpwnam and .Fn getpwuid search the password database for the given login name or user ID, respectively, always returning the first one encountered. .Pp The .Fn getpwnam_r and .Fn getpwuid_r functions both update the passwd structure pointed to by .Fa pwstore and store a pointer to that structure at the location pointed to by .Fa result . The structure is filled with an entry from the password database with a matching .Fa name or .Fa uid . Storage referenced by the passwd structure will be allocated from the memory provided with the .Fa buf parameter, which is .Fa bufsiz characters in size. The maximum size needed for this buffer can be determined with .Fn sysconf _SC_GETPW_R_SIZE_MAX . .Pp .Fn setpassent accomplishes two purposes. First, it causes .Xr getpwent 3 to .Dq rewind to the beginning of the database. Additionally, if .Fa stayopen is non-zero, file descriptors are left open, significantly speeding up subsequent accesses for the lookup routines. These file descriptors can be closed by a call to .Xr endpwent 3 . .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. However the file descriptors are automatically closed when .Xr execve 2 is called. .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. The default functions will not return the true encrypted password, but instead only the string .Ql * . If the process which calls them has an effective UID of 0 or has the .Dq _shadow group in its group vector, and wishes to access the encrypted password, it should use the .Fn getpwnam_shadow and .Fn getpwuid_shadow functions. .Ss YP support If YP is active, the functions .Fn getpwnam and .Fn getpwnam_r also use the .Pa master.passwd.byname YP map (if available) or the .Pa passwd.byname YP map; and the functions .Fn getpwuid and .Fn getpwuid_r also use the .Pa master.passwd.byuid YP map (if available) or the .Pa passwd.byuid 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 functions .Fn getpwnam and .Fn getpwuid return a pointer to a passwd structure if a match is found or a .Dv NULL pointer if no match is found or an error occurs. .Pp The functions .Fn getpwnam_r and .Fn getpwuid_r update .Fa result to point to .Fa pwstore if a match is found or set it to .Dv NULL if no match is found or an error occurs. They return 0 on success, even if no match is found, or an error number if an error occurs; see .Sx ERRORS . .Pp The .Fn setpassent function returns 0 on failure or 1 on success. .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 legacy password file .El .Sh ERRORS The .Fn getpwnam_r and .Fn getpwuid_r functions may fail if: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Bq Er ERANGE The storage supplied via .Fa buf and .Fa bufsize is too small and cannot contain all the strings to be returned in .Fa pwstore . .El .Pp The .Fn getpwnam , .Fn getpwnam_r , .Fn getpwuid , and .Fn getpwuid_r functions may also fail for any of the errors specified for .Xr dbopen 3 and its .Fn get routine. .Pp If YP is active, they may also fail due to errors caused by the YP subsystem. .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr getlogin 2 , .Xr getgrent 3 , .Xr getgrouplist 3 , .Xr getpwent 3 , .Xr pw_dup 3 , .Xr sysconf 3 , .Xr passwd 5 , .Xr Makefile.yp 8 , .Xr pwd_mkdb 8 , .Xr vipw 8 , .Xr yp 8 .Sh STANDARDS The .Fn getpwnam , .Fn getpwnam_r , .Fn getpwuid , and .Fn getpwuid_r functions are compliant with the .St -p1003.1-2008 specification. .Pp .Sx YP support and the .Fn setpassent function are extensions to that specification. .Sh HISTORY A predecessor to .Fn getpwuid , .Fn getpw , first appeared in .At v4 . The .Fn getpwnam and .Fn getpwuid functions appeared in .At v7 , .Fn setpassent in .Bx 4.3 Reno , and .Fn getpwnam_shadow and .Fn getpwuid_shadow in .Ox 5.9 . .Sh BUGS The .Fn getpwnam and .Fn getpwuid functions store their results in an internal static buffer and return a pointer to that buffer. Subsequent calls to .Fn getpwent , .Fn getpwnam , or .Fn getpwuid will overwrite the same buffer.