NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

       getpw - Re-construct password line entry

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

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

       int getpw(uid_t uid, char *buf);

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

       The  getpw()  function  re-constructs  the  password line entry for the
       given user uid 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;       /* 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    [Toc]    [Back]

       The getpw() function returns 0 on success, or -1 if an error occurs.

ERRORS    [Toc]    [Back]

       ENOMEM Insufficient memory to allocate passwd structure.

FILES    [Toc]    [Back]

       /etc/passwd
	      password database file

CONFORMING TO    [Toc]    [Back]

       SYSVr2.

BUGS    [Toc]    [Back]

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

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

       fgetpwent(3), getpwent(3), setpwent(3), endpwent(3), getpwnam(3), getp-
       wuid(3), putpwent(3), passwd(5)



GNU				  1996-05-27			      GETPW(3)