Search                        Top                                  Index

HELP SYSGETPASSWDENTRY                       Mark Rubinstein  March 1986
                                               Revised A.Sloman Aug 1986

sysgetpasswdentry(<user name/id>) -> <vector> | false
sysgetpasswdentry(<user name/id>, true) -> <string>  | false
sysgetpasswdentry(<user name/id>, <vector>) -> <vector> | false
sysgetpasswdentry(<user name/id>, {<integer>})
    -> <field of passwd file> | false

This procedure, only available on UNIX, takes either the name (a string)
or identification number (an integer) of a user, and either TRUE or a
vector.

It searches in the passwd file for information about that user. If the
name/id is not found it returns false. If it is found, the result
depends on the arguments given.

If given a single argument, a user name or id, SYSGETPASSWDENTRY returns
a nine element vector containing password and login details for that
user. This vector corresponds to the password structure used by the UNIX
'getpwent' library routines (see MAN GETPWENT(3)). The components of the
vector are:

    vector(1)   Name (login name, contains no upper case), a string.
    vector(2)   Encrypted password, a string.
    vector(3)   User's identification, a number.
    vector(4)   User's group identification, a number.
    vector(5)   This is called 'pw_quota' but is always 0 at present
    vector(6)   This is called 'pw_comment' but is always an empty string.
    vector(7)   User's real name, office, phone extension etc.
    vector(8)   Initial working directory (home directory), a string.
    vector(9)   Program to use as login Shell, a string.


If the second argument to SYSGETPASSWDENTRY is the boolean TRUE, then it
returns a string representing the entry in the passwd file. This does
not include fields 5 and 6.

If the second argument to SYSGETPASSWDENTRY is a one-element vector
containing an integer N, then a string or integer comprising the Nth
field of the password entry is returned.

If the second argument to SYSGETPASSWDENTRY is a vector of N elements,
where 1 < N < 10, then the first N fields are inserted into the vector,
which is returned.


--- Note specific to Suns ----------------------------------------------

This procedure will make use of the "yellow pages" routines for those
password files that are using networked password databases.  However due
to problems with the SUN routines modifications to the entry done on the
local machine will not be reflected in the vector returned.  See MAN
PASSWD(5).


--- Examples -----------------------------------------------------------

    sysgetpasswdentry('imposter') =>
    ** <false>

    sysgetpasswdentry(popusername) ==>
    ** {'mark'
        'a3.@:aJ'
        45
        10
        0
        ''
        'Mark Rubinstein,AE329,2407'
        '/cog/mark'
        '/bin/csh'
        }

    sysgetpasswdentry('aarons', true) =>
    ** 'aarons:A5kEAmKs:12:10:Aaron Sloman,AD411,8294:/cog/aarons:/bin/csh'

    sysgetpasswdentry('aarons', {7}) =>
    ** 'Aaron Sloman,AD411,8294'

    sysgetpasswdentry('joes', {1 2 3 4 5 6 7}) ==>
    ** {'joes' '7POPkEApBBcs' 7 10 0 '' 'Joe Smith,Chem424,6398'}


A related utility, on UNIX only, is SYSGETUSERNAME. This takes a login
name or user id and returns the user's full name, extracted from the 7th
field:

    sysgetusername('aarons') =>
    ** 'Aaron Sloman'

    sysgetusername(12) =>
    ** 'Aaron Sloman'



--- C.unix/help/sysgetpasswdentry --------------------------------------
--- Copyright University of Sussex 1987. All rights reserved. ----------