x11r4 man page for getpw

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.

       If uid is not found in the password database, getpw() returns -1, sets errno to 0, and leaves buf unchanged.

ERRORS
       0 or ENOENT
	      No user corresponding to uid.

       EINVAL buf is NULL.

       ENOMEM Insufficient memory to allocate passwd structure.

FILES
       /etc/passwd
	      password database file

ATTRIBUTES
       For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).

       +----------+---------------+----------------+
       |Interface | Attribute	  | Value	   |
       +----------+---------------+----------------+
       |getpw()   | Thread safety | MT-Safe locale |
       +----------+---------------+----------------+

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 4.15 of the Linux man-pages project.  A description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and  the
       latest version of this page, can be found at https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

GNU
								    2017-09-15								  GETPW(3)