GETPWENT

getpwent, setpwent, endpwent ? get password file entry

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

struct passwd *getpwent(void);

void setpwent(void);

void endpwent(void);

The getpwent() function returns a pointer to a structure containing the broken out fields of a line from /etc/passwd. The first time it is called it returns the first entry; thereafter, it returns successive entries.

The setpwent() function rewinds the file pointer to the beginning of the /etc/passwd file.

The endpwent() function closes the /etc/passwd file.

The passwd structure is defined in <pwd.h> as follows:

struct passwd {

/* user name */
char *pw_passwd;

/* user password */
uid_t pw_uid;

/* user id */
gid_t pw_gid;

/* group id */

char *pw_gecos; /* real name */

/* home directory */

char *pw_shell; /* shell program */
};

The getpwent() function returns the passwd structure, or NULL if there are no more entries or an error occurs.

ENOMEM

Insufficient memory to allocate passwd structure.

/etc/passwd

password database file

SVID 3, BSD 4.3

fgetpwent(3), getpwnam(3), getpwuid(3), getpw(3), putpwent(3), passwd(5).