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 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 3.53 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
								    2010-10-21								  GETPW(3)