getpwnam

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



NAME
       getpwnam, getpwuid - get password file entry

SYNOPSIS
       #include <pwd.h>
       #include <sys/types.h>

       struct passwd *getpwnam(const char *name);

       struct passwd *getpwuid(uid_t uid);

DESCRIPTION
       The getpwnam() function returns a pointer to a structure containing the
       broken out fields of a line from /etc/passwd for the entry that matches
       the user name name.

       The getpwuid() function returns a pointer to a structure containing the
       broken out fields of a line from /etc/passwd for the entry that matches
       the user uid uid.

       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 */
              };

RETURN VALUE
       The  getpwnam() and getpwuid() functions return a pointer to the passwd
       structure, or NULL if the matching entry  is  not  found  or  an  error
       occurs.

ERRORS
       ENOMEM Insufficient memory to allocate passwd structure.

FILES
       /etc/passwd
              password database file

CONFORMING TO
       SVID 3, POSIX, BSD 4.3

SEE ALSO
       fgetpwent(3),   getgrnam(3),   getpwent(3),  setpwent(3),  endpwent(3),
       getpw(3), putpwent(3), passwd(5)



GNU                               1996-05-27                       GETPWNAM(3)