getpwnam -- Access User Database by User Name

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);
 }
 .
 .
 .