getpw(3) — Linux manual page

getpw(3)                Library Functions Manual                getpw(3)

NAME

       getpw - reconstruct password line entry

LIBRARY

       Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

       #define _GNU_SOURCE             /* See feature_test_macros(7) */
       #include <sys/types.h>
       #include <pwd.h>

       [[deprecated]] int getpw(uid_t uid, char *buf);

DESCRIPTION

       The getpw() function reconstructs 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;       /* username */
               char   *pw_passwd;     /* user password */
               uid_t   pw_uid;        /* user ID */
               gid_t   pw_gid;        /* group ID */
               char   *pw_gecos;      /* user information */
               char   *pw_dir;        /* home directory */
               char   *pw_shell;      /* shell program */
           };

       For more information about the fields of this structure, see
       passwd(5).

RETURN VALUE

       The getpw() function returns 0 on success; on error, it returns
       -1, and errno is set to indicate the error.

       If uid is not found in the password database, getpw() returns -1,
       sets errno to 0, and leaves buf unchanged.

ERRORS

       0 or ENOENT
              No user corresponding to uid.

       EINVAL buf is NULL.

       ENOMEM Insufficient memory to allocate passwd structure.

FILES

       /etc/passwd
              password database file

ATTRIBUTES

       For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
       attributes(7).
       ┌──────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬────────────────┐
       │ Interface                    │ Attribute     │ Value          │
       ├──────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼────────────────┤
       │ getpw()                      │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe locale │
       └──────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴────────────────┘

STANDARDS

       None.

HISTORY

       SVr2.

BUGS

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

SEE ALSO

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

COLOPHON

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Linux man-pages 6.9.1          2024-05-02                       getpw(3)

Pages that refer to this page: fgetpwent(3), getpwent(3), getpwent_r(3), getpwnam(3), putpwent(3)

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