GETPWNAM(3P) POSIX Programmer's Manual GETPWNAM(3P)PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux
implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding
Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
getpwnam, getpwnam_r — search user database for a name
SYNOPSIS
#include <pwd.h>
struct passwd *getpwnam(const char *name);
int getpwnam_r(const char *name, struct passwd *pwd, char *buffer,
size_t bufsize, struct passwd **result);
DESCRIPTION
The getpwnam() function shall search the user database for an entry
with a matching name.
The getpwnam() function need not be thread-safe.
Applications wishing to check for error situations should set errno to
0 before calling getpwnam(). If getpwnam() returns a null pointer and
errno is non-zero, an error occurred.
The getpwnam_r() function shall update the passwd structure pointed to
by pwd and store a pointer to that structure at the location pointed to
by result. The structure shall contain an entry from the user database
with a matching name. Storage referenced by the structure is allocated
from the memory provided with the buffer parameter, which is bufsize
bytes in size. A call to sysconf(_SC_GETPW_R_SIZE_MAX) returns either
−1 without changing errno or an initial value suggested for the size of
this buffer. A null pointer shall be returned at the location pointed
to by result on error or if the requested entry is not found.
RETURN VALUE
The getpwnam() function shall return a pointer to a struct passwd with
the structure as defined in <pwd.h> with a matching entry if found. A
null pointer shall be returned if the requested entry is not found, or
an error occurs. On error, errno shall be set to indicate the error.
The application shall not modify the structure to which the return
value points, nor any storage areas pointed to by pointers within the
structure. The returned pointer, and pointers within the structure,
might be invalidated or the structure or the storage areas might be
overwritten by a subsequent call to getpwent(), getpwnam(), or getp‐
wuid().
The getpwnam_r() function shall return zero on success or if the
requested entry was not found and no error has occurred. If an error
has occurred, an error number shall be returned to indicate the error.
ERRORS
These functions may fail if:
EIO An I/O error has occurred.
EINTR A signal was caught during getpwnam().
EMFILE All file descriptors available to the process are currently
open.
ENFILE The maximum allowable number of files is currently open in the
system.
The getpwnam_r() function may fail if:
ERANGE Insufficient storage was supplied via buffer and bufsize to con‐
tain the data to be referenced by the resulting passwd struc‐
ture.
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
Note that sysconf(_SC_GETPW_R_SIZE_MAX) may return −1 if there is no
hard limit on the size of the buffer needed to store all the groups
returned. This example shows how an application can allocate a buffer
of sufficient size to work with getpwnam_r().
long int initlen = sysconf(_SC_GETPW_R_SIZE_MAX);
size_t len;
if (initlen == −1)
/* Default initial length. */
len = 1024;
else
len = (size_t) initlen;
struct passwd result;
struct passwd *resultp;
char *buffer = malloc(len);
if (buffer == NULL)
...handle error...
int e;
while ((e = getpwnam_r("someuser", &result, buffer, len, &resultp))
== ERANGE)
{
size_t newlen = 2 * len;
if (newlen < len)
...handle error...
len = newlen;
char *newbuffer = realloc(buffer, len);
if (newbuffer == NULL)
...handle error...
buffer = newbuffer;
}
if (e != 0)
...handle error...
free (buffer);
Getting an Entry for the Login Name
The following example uses the getlogin() function to return the name
of the user who logged in; this information is passed to the getpwnam()
function to get the user database entry for that user.
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <pwd.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
...
char *lgn;
struct passwd *pw;
...
if ((lgn = getlogin()) == NULL || (pw = getpwnam(lgn)) == NULL) {
fprintf(stderr, "Get of user information failed.\n"); exit(1);
}
...
APPLICATION USAGE
Three names associated with the current process can be determined: get‐
pwuid(geteuid()) returns the name associated with the effective user ID
of the process; getlogin() returns the name associated with the current
login activity; and getpwuid(getuid()) returns the name associated with
the real user ID of the process.
The getpwnam_r() function is thread-safe and returns values in a user-
supplied buffer instead of possibly using a static data area that may
be overwritten by each call.
Portable applications should take into account that it is usual for an
implementation to return −1 from sysconf() indicating that there is no
maximum for _SC_GETPW_R_SIZE_MAX.
RATIONALE
None.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSOgetpwuid(), sysconf()
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, <pwd.h>, <sys_types.h>
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electri‐
cal and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. (This is
POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the
event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
at http://www.unix.org/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are
most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source
files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.ker‐
nel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2013 GETPWNAM(3P)
