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



NAME
       getpw - reconstruct password line entry

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

       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.

ERRORS
       EINVAL buf is NULL.

       ENOENT No user corresponding to uid.

       ENOMEM Insufficient memory to allocate passwd structure.

FILES
       /etc/passwd
              password database file

CONFORMING TO
       SVr2.

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

SEE ALSO
       endpwent(3),  fgetpwent(3),  getpwent(3),  getpwnam(3),  getpwuid(3),  putpwent(3),  setp‐
       went(3), passwd(5)

COLOPHON
       This  page  is  part of release 3.74 of the Linux man-pages project.  A description of the
       project, information about reporting bugs, and the latest version of  this  page,  can  be
       found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



GNU                                         2010-10-21                                   GETPW(3)