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PROLOG | NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | ERRORS | EXAMPLES | APPLICATION USAGE | RATIONALE | FUTURE DIRECTIONS | SEE ALSO | COPYRIGHT |
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ENDPWENT(3P) POSIX Programmer's Manual ENDPWENT(3P)
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.
endpwent, getpwent, setpwent — user database functions
#include <pwd.h>
void endpwent(void);
struct passwd *getpwent(void);
void setpwent(void);
These functions shall retrieve information about users.
The getpwent() function shall return a pointer to a structure
containing the broken-out fields of an entry in the user database.
Each entry in the user database contains a passwd structure. If
the user database is not already open, getpwent() shall open it
and return a pointer to a passwd structure containing the first
entry in the database. Thereafter, it shall return a pointer to a
passwd structure containing the next entry in the user database.
Successive calls can be used to search the entire user database.
If an end-of-file or an error is encountered on reading,
getpwent() shall return a null pointer.
An implementation that provides extended security controls may
impose further implementation-defined restrictions on accessing
the user database. In particular, the system may deny the
existence of some or all of the user database entries associated
with users other than the caller.
The setpwent() function shall rewind the user database so that the
next getpwent() call returns the first entry, allowing repeated
searches.
The endpwent() function shall close the user database.
The setpwent() and endpwent() functions shall not change the
setting of errno if successful.
On error, the setpwent() and endpwent() functions shall set errno
to indicate the error.
Since no value is returned by the setpwent() and endpwent()
functions, an application wishing to check for error situations
should set errno to 0, then call the function, then check errno.
These functions need not be thread-safe.
On successful completion, getpwent() shall return a pointer to a
passwd structure. On end-of-file, getpwent() shall return a null
pointer and shall not change the setting of errno. On error,
getpwent() shall return a null pointer and 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 getpwuid(),
getpwnam(), or getpwent(). The returned pointer, and pointers
within the structure, might also be invalidated if the calling
thread is terminated.
These functions may fail if:
EINTR A signal was caught during the operation.
EIO An I/O error has occurred.
In addition, getpwent() and setpwent() may fail if:
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 following sections are informative.
Searching the User Database
The following example uses the getpwent() function to get
successive entries in the user database, returning a pointer to a
passwd structure that contains information about each user. The
call to endpwent() closes the user database and cleans up.
#include <pwd.h>
#include <stdio.h>
void printname(uid_t uid)
{
struct passwd *pwd;
setpwent();
while((pwd = getpwent()) != NULL) {
if (pwd->pw_uid == uid) {
printf("name=%s\n",pwd->pw_name);
break;
}
}
endpwent();
}
These functions are provided due to their historical usage.
Applications should avoid dependencies on fields in the password
database, whether the database is a single file, or where in the
file system name space the database resides. Applications should
use getpwuid() whenever possible because it avoids these
dependencies.
None.
None.
endgrent(3p), getlogin(3p), getpwnam(3p), getpwuid(3p)
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, pwd.h(0p)
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic
form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information
Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The
Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright
(C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers,
Inc and The Open Group. 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.opengroup.org/unix/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.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2017 ENDPWENT(3P)
Pages that refer to this page: pwd.h(0p), endgrent(3p), getpwent(3p), setpwent(3p)
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HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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