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



NAME
       getpw - Re-construct password line entry

SYNOPSIS
       #define _GNU_SOURCE
       #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 buf-
       fer 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;      /* real name */
               char   *pw_dir;        /* home directory */
               char   *pw_shell;      /* shell program */
           };

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 obsoleted by getpwuid(3).

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

COLOPHON
       This page is part of release 3.25 of the Linux man-pages project.  A description of the project,  and  information  about
       reporting bugs, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



GNU                                                        2007-12-12                                                   GETPW(3)