getpwent(3)                                           Library Functions Manual                                          getpwent(3)

NAME
       getpwent, setpwent, endpwent - get password file entry

LIBRARY
       Standard C library (libc, -lc)

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

       struct passwd *getpwent(void);
       void setpwent(void);
       void endpwent(void);

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

       getpwent(), setpwent(), endpwent():
           _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500
               || /* glibc >= 2.19: */ _DEFAULT_SOURCE
               || /* glibc <= 2.19: */ _BSD_SOURCE || _SVID_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION
       The  getpwent()  function  returns  a  pointer to a structure containing the broken-out fields of a record from the password
       database (e.g., the local password file /etc/passwd, NIS, and LDAP).  The first time getpwent() is called,  it  returns  the
       first entry; thereafter, it returns successive entries.

       The setpwent() function rewinds to the beginning of the password database.

       The endpwent() function is used to close the password database after all processing has been performed.

       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 */
           };

       When  shadow(5) passwords are enabled (which is default on many GNU/Linux installations) the content of pw_passwd is usually
       not very useful.  In such a case most passwords are stored in a separate file.

       The variable pw_shell may be empty, in which case the system will execute the default shell (/bin/sh) for the user.

       For more information about the fields of this structure, see passwd(5).

RETURN VALUE
       The getpwent() function returns a pointer to a passwd structure, or NULL if there are no more entries or an error  occurred.
       If  an  error  occurs,  errno is set to indicate the error.  If one wants to check errno after the call, it should be set to
       zero before the call.

       The return value may point to a static area, and may be overwritten by subsequent calls to getpwent(), getpwnam(3), or getp‐
       wuid(3).  (Do not pass the returned pointer to free(3).)

ERRORS
       EINTR  A signal was caught; see signal(7).

       EIO    I/O error.

       EMFILE The per-process limit on the number of open file descriptors has been reached.

       ENFILE The system-wide limit on the total number of open files has been reached.

       ENOMEM Insufficient memory to allocate passwd structure.

       ERANGE Insufficient buffer space supplied.

FILES
       /etc/passwd
              local password database file

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

       ┌───────────────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
       │Interface              │ Attribute     │ Value                                                                             │
       ├───────────────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
       │getpwent()             │ Thread safety │ MT-Unsafe race:pwent race:pwentbuf locale                                         │
       ├───────────────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
       │setpwent(), endpwent() │ Thread safety │ MT-Unsafe race:pwent locale                                                       │
       └───────────────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
       In  the  above  table,  pwent in race:pwent signifies that if any of the functions setpwent(), getpwent(), or endpwent() are
       used in parallel in different threads of a program, then data races could occur.

STANDARDS
       POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008, SVr4, 4.3BSD.  The pw_gecos field is not specified in POSIX, but is present on most  implementa‐
       tions.

SEE ALSO
       fgetpwent(3), getpw(3), getpwent_r(3), getpwnam(3), getpwuid(3), putpwent(3), shadow(5), passwd(5)

Linux man-pages 6.03                                         2023-02-05                                                 getpwent(3)