NAME

       Unix::PasswdFile - Perl interface to /etc/passwd format files

SYNOPSIS

         use Unix::PasswdFile;

         $pw = new Unix::PasswdFile "/etc/passwd";
         $pw->user("joeblow", $pw->encpass("secret"), $pw->maxuid + 1, 10,
                   "Joe Blow", "/export/home/joeblow", "/bin/ksh");
         $pw->delete("deadguy");
         $pw->passwd("johndoe", $pw->encpass("newpass"));
         foreach $user ($pw->users) {
             print "Username: $user, Full Name: ", $pw->gecos($user), "\n";
         }
         $pw->commit();
         undef $pw;

DESCRIPTION

       The Unix::PasswdFile module provides an abstract interface to /etc/passwd format files.
       It automatically handles file locking, getting colons in the right places, and all the
       other niggling details.

METHODS

   commit( [BACKUPEXT] )
       See the Unix::ConfigFile documentation for a description of this method.

   delete( USERNAME )
       This method will delete the named user.  It has no effect if the supplied user does not
       exist.

   encpass( PASSWORD )
       See the Unix::ConfigFile documentation for a description of this method.

   gecos( USERNAME [,GECOS] )
       Read or modify a user's GECOS string (typically their full name).  Returns the GECOS
       string in either case.

   gid( USERNAME [,GID] )
       Read or modify a user's GID.  Returns the GID in either case.

   home( USERNAME [,HOMEDIR] )
       Read or modify a user's home directory.  Returns the home directory in either case.

   maxuid( [IGNORE] )
       This method returns the maximum UID in use by all users.  If you pass in the optional
       IGNORE parameter, it will ignore all UIDs greater or equal to IGNORE when doing this
       calculation.  This is useful for excluding accounts like nobody.

   new( FILENAME [,OPTIONS] )
       See the Unix::ConfigFile documentation for a description of this method.

   passwd( USERNAME [,PASSWD] )
       Read or modify a user's password.  Returns the encrypted password in either case.  If you
       have a plaintext password, use the encpass method to encrypt it before passing it to this
       method.

   rename( OLDNAME, NEWNAME )
       This method changes the username for a user.  If NEWNAME corresponds to an existing user,
       that user will be overwritten.  It returns 0 on failure and 1 on success.

   shell( USERNAME [,SHELL] )
       Read or modify a user's shell.  Returns the shell in either case.

   uid( USERNAME [,UID] )
       Read or modify a user's UID.  Returns the UID in either case.

   user( USERNAME [,PASSWD, UID, GID, GECOS, HOMEDIR, SHELL] )
       This method can add, modify, or return information about a user.  Supplied with a single
       username parameter, it will return a six element list consisting of (PASSWORD, UID, GID,
       GECOS, HOMEDIR, SHELL), or undef if no such user exists.  If you supply all seven
       parameters, the named user will be created or modified if it already exists.  The six
       element list is also returned to you in this case.

   users( [SORTBY] )
       This method returns a list of all existing usernames.  By default the list will be sorted
       in order of the UIDs of the users.  You may also supply "name" as a parameter to the
       method to get the list sorted by username.  In scalar context, this method returns the
       total number of users.

AUTHOR

       Steve Snodgrass, ssnodgra@fore.com

SEE ALSO

       Unix::AliasFile, Unix::AutomountFile, Unix::ConfigFile, Unix::GroupFile