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 4.04 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 http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.