path: root/lib/libc/gen/getpwnam.3

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.Dd $Mdocdate: June 2 2009 $
.Dt GETPWNAM 3
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm getpwnam ,
.Nm getpwuid ,
.Nm getpwnam_r ,
.Nm getpwuid_r ,
.Nm setpassent
.Nd password database operations
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Fd #include <sys/types.h>
.Fd #include <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 buflen" "struct passwd **result"
.Ft int
.Fn getpwuid_r "uid_t uid" "struct passwd *pwstore" "char *buf" "size_t buflen" "struct passwd **result"
.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
.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 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 re-entrant versions,
.Fn getpwnam_r
and
.Fn getpwuid_r ,
behave similarly but the various strings associated with the result
are stored in
.Va buf ,
and
.Va pwstore
is updated to reference those strings.
.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open as the database will become out of date if it is updated while the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.
Furthermore, programs that run child processes should be careful to call
.Xr endpwent 3
to close these descriptors before calling
.Xr execve 2
or
.Xr system 3 .
.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, 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 valid pointer to a passwd structure on success
or a null pointer if end-of-file is reached or an error occurs.
.Pp
The functions
.Fn getpwnam_r
and
.Fn getpwuid_r
update
.Va result
to point to
.Va pwstore
and then return 0 on success.
.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
a Version 7 format password file
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr getlogin 2 ,
.Xr getgrent 3 ,
.Xr getgrouplist 3 ,
.Xr getpwent 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 getpwnam
and
.Fn getpwuid
functions appeared in
.At v7 .
The
.Fn setpassent
function appeared in
.Bx 4.3 Reno .
.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.