xref: /netbsd-src/lib/libc/gen/getpwent.3 (revision 2829446e9d2be27720e5596f59366a53e8f8d826)
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30.\"     @(#)getpwent.3	8.2 (Berkeley) 12/11/93
31.\"
32.Dd February 7, 2018
33.Dt GETPWENT 3
34.Os
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm getpwent ,
37.Nm getpwent_r ,
38.Nm getpwnam ,
39.Nm getpwnam_r ,
40.Nm getpwuid ,
41.Nm getpwuid_r ,
42.Nm setpassent ,
43.Nm setpwent ,
44.Nm endpwent
45.Nd password database operations
46.Sh LIBRARY
47.Lb libc
48.Sh SYNOPSIS
49.In pwd.h
50.Ft struct passwd *
51.Fn getpwent void
52.Ft int
53.Fo getpwent_r
54.Fa "struct passwd *pw"
55.Fa "char *buffer"
56.Fa "size_t buflen"
57.Fa "struct passwd **result"
58.Fc
59.Ft struct passwd *
60.Fn getpwnam "const char *name"
61.Ft int
62.Fo getpwnam_r
63.Fa "const char *name"
64.Fa "struct passwd *pw"
65.Fa "char *buffer"
66.Fa "size_t buflen"
67.Fa "struct passwd **result"
68.Fc
69.Ft struct passwd *
70.Fn getpwuid "uid_t uid"
71.Ft int
72.Fo getpwuid_r
73.Fa "uid_t uid"
74.Fa "struct passwd *pw"
75.Fa "char *buffer"
76.Fa "size_t buflen"
77.Fa "struct passwd **result"
78.Fc
79.Ft int
80.Fn setpassent "int stayopen"
81.Ft void
82.Fn setpwent void
83.Ft void
84.Fn endpwent void
85.Sh DESCRIPTION
86These functions
87operate on the password database
88which is described
89in
90.Xr passwd 5 .
91Each entry in the database is defined by the structure
92.Ar passwd
93found in the include
94file
95.In pwd.h :
96.Bd -literal -offset indent
97struct passwd {
98	char	*pw_name;	/* user name */
99	char	*pw_passwd;	/* encrypted password */
100	uid_t	pw_uid;		/* user uid */
101	gid_t	pw_gid;		/* user gid */
102	time_t	pw_change;	/* password change time */
103	char	*pw_class;	/* user login class */
104	char	*pw_gecos;	/* general information */
105	char	*pw_dir;	/* home directory */
106	char	*pw_shell;	/* default shell */
107	time_t	pw_expire;	/* account expiration */
108};
109.Ed
110.Pp
111The functions
112.Fn getpwnam
113and
114.Fn getpwuid
115search the password database for the given user name pointed to by
116.Ar name
117or user id pointed to by
118.Ar uid
119respectively, always returning the first one encountered.
120Identical user names or user ids may result in undefined behavior.
121.Pp
122The
123.Fn getpwent
124function
125sequentially reads the password database and is intended for programs
126that wish to process the complete list of users.
127.Pp
128The functions
129.Fn getpwnam_r ,
130.Fn getpwuid_r ,
131and
132.Fn getpwent_r
133act like their non re-entrant counterparts, updating the contents of
134.Ar pw
135and storing a pointer to that in
136.Ar result ,
137and returning
138.Dv 0 .
139Storage used by
140.Ar pw
141is allocated from
142.Ar buffer ,
143which is
144.Ar buflen
145bytes in size.
146If the requested entry cannot be found,
147.Ar result
148will point to
149.Dv NULL
150and
151.Dv 0
152will be returned.
153If an error occurs,
154a non-zero error number will be returned and
155.Ar result
156will point to
157.Dv NULL .
158Calling
159.Fn getpwent_r
160from multiple threads will result in each thread reading a disjoint portion
161of the password database.
162.Pp
163The
164.Fn setpassent
165function
166accomplishes two purposes.
167First, it causes
168.Fn getpwent
169to
170.Dq rewind
171to the beginning of the database.
172Additionally, if
173.Fa stayopen
174is non-zero, file descriptors are left open, significantly speeding
175up subsequent accesses for all of the functions.
176(This latter functionality is unnecessary for
177.Fn getpwent
178as it doesn't close its file descriptors by default.)
179.Pp
180It is dangerous for long-running programs to keep the file descriptors
181open as the database will become out of date if it is updated while the
182program is running.
183.Pp
184The
185.Fn setpwent
186function
187is equivalent to
188.Fn setpassent
189with an argument of zero.
190.Pp
191The
192.Fn endpwent
193function
194closes any open files.
195.Pp
196These functions have been written to
197.Dq shadow
198the password file, e.g. allow only certain programs to have access
199to the encrypted password.
200If the process which calls them has an effective uid of 0, the encrypted
201password will be returned, otherwise, the password field of the returned
202structure will point to the string
203.Ql * .
204.Sh RETURN VALUES
205The functions
206.Fn getpwent ,
207.Fn getpwnam ,
208and
209.Fn getpwuid ,
210return a valid pointer to a passwd structure on success
211and a
212.Dv NULL
213pointer if the entry was not found or an error occurred.
214If an error occurred, the global variable
215.Dv errno
216is set to indicate the nature of the failure.
217The
218.Fn setpassent
219function returns 0 on failure, setting the global variable
220.Dv errno
221to indicate the nature of the failure, and 1 on success.
222The
223.Fn endpwent
224and
225.Fn setpwent
226functions
227have no return value.
228The functions
229.Fn getpwnam_r ,
230.Fn getpwuid_r ,
231and
232.Fn getpwent_r
233return
234.Dv 0
235on success or entry not found, and non-zero on failure, setting the global
236variable
237.Dv errno
238to indicate the nature of the failure.
239.Sh FILES
240.Bl -tag -width /etc/master.passwd -compact
241.It Pa /etc/pwd.db
242The insecure password database file
243.It Pa /etc/spwd.db
244The secure password database file
245.It Pa /etc/master.passwd
246The current password file
247.It Pa /etc/passwd
248A Version 7 format password file
249.El
250.Sh COMPATIBILITY
251The historic function
252.Fn setpwfile
253which allowed the specification of alternative password databases,
254has been deprecated and is no longer available.
255.Sh ERRORS
256The following error codes may be set in
257.Va errno
258for
259.Nm getpwent ,
260.Nm getpwent_r ,
261.Nm getpwnam ,
262.Nm getpwnam_r ,
263.Nm getpwuid ,
264.Nm getpwuid_r ,
265and
266.Nm setpassent :
267.Bl -tag -width Er
268.It Bq Er EINTR
269A signal was caught during the database search.
270.It Bq Er EIO
271An I/O error has occurred.
272.It Bq Er EMFILE
273The limit on open files for this process has been reached.
274.It Bq Er ENFILE
275The system limit on open files has been reached.
276.El
277.Pp
278The following error code may be set in
279.Va errno
280for
281.Nm getpwent_r ,
282.Nm getpwnam_r ,
283and
284.Nm getpwuid_r :
285.Bl -tag -width Er
286.It Bq Er ERANGE
287The resulting
288.Ft struct passwd
289does not fit in the space defined by
290.Dv buffer
291and
292.Dv buflen .
293.El
294.Pp
295Other
296.Dv errno
297values may be set depending on the specific database backends.
298.Sh SEE ALSO
299.Xr getlogin 2 ,
300.Xr getgrent 3 ,
301.Xr nsswitch.conf 5 ,
302.Xr passwd 5 ,
303.Xr passwd.conf 5 ,
304.Xr pwd_mkdb 8 ,
305.Xr vipw 8
306.Sh STANDARDS
307The
308.Fn getpwnam
309and
310.Fn getpwuid ,
311functions conform to
312.St -p1003.1-90 .
313The
314.Fn getpwnam_r
315and
316.Fn getpwuid_r
317functions conform to
318.St -p1003.1c-95 .
319The
320.Fn endpwent ,
321.Fn getpwent ,
322and
323.Fn setpwent
324functions conform to
325.St -xpg4.2
326and
327.St -p1003.1-2004
328(XSI extension).
329.Sh HISTORY
330The
331.Nm getpwent ,
332.Nm getpwnam ,
333.Nm getpwuid ,
334.Nm setpwent ,
335and
336.Nm endpwent
337functions appeared in
338.At v7 .
339The
340.Nm setpassent
341function appeared in
342.Bx 4.3 Reno .
343The functions
344.Fn getpwnam_r
345and
346.Fn getpwuid_r
347appeared in
348.Nx 3.0 .
349.Sh BUGS
350The functions
351.Fn getpwent ,
352.Fn getpwnam ,
353and
354.Fn getpwuid ,
355leave their results in an internal static object and return
356a pointer to that object.
357Subsequent calls to any of these functions will modify the same object.
358.Pp
359The functions
360.Fn getpwent ,
361.Fn endpwent ,
362.Fn setpassent ,
363and
364.Fn setpwent
365are fairly useless in a networked environment and should be
366avoided, if possible.
367.Fn getpwent
368makes no attempt to suppress duplicate information if multiple
369sources are specified in
370.Xr nsswitch.conf 5 .
371