getpwnam

getpwnam

Access User Database by User Name

Portability: POSIX.1 conforming, UNIX compatible

SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
RETURN VALUE
EXAMPLE
SEE ALSO

SYNOPSIS

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

struct passwd *getpwnam(const char *name);

DESCRIPTION

getpwnam returns a pointer to the passwd structure. passwd contains an entry from the user database. name is a pointer to the user name.

passwd is defined in <pwd.h> . It contains the following members:

pw_name user name

pw_uid user ID number

pw_dir initial working directory

pw_shell initial user program.

RETURN VALUE

getpwnam returns a pointer to a user database entry if successful. Note that the pointer returned by getpwnam may be a static data area that can be rewritten by the next call to getpwnam or getpwuid . getpwnam returns a NULL pointer if unsuccessful.

EXAMPLE

The following code fragment illustrates the use of getpwnam to obtain the home directory of the user:

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

.
.
.
struct passwd *p;
char user[ ]  ="YVONNE";

if ((p = getpwnam(user)) == NULL)
   perror("getpwnam() error");
else {
   printf("pw_name : %s\n", p->  pw_name);
   printf("pw_dir  : %d\n", p->  pw_dir);
}

.
.
.

SEE ALSO

getgrnam , getpwuid

Chapter Contents
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`pw_name`	user name
`pw_uid`	user ID number
`pw_dir`	initial working directory
`pw_shell`	initial user program.