GETPWNAM Section: Linux Programmer's Manual (3) Updated: May 27, 2025 Index   NAME getpwnam, getpwuid - get password file entry   SYNOPSIS #include <pwd.h> #include <sys/types.h> struct passwd *getpwnam(const char * name); struct passwd *getpwuid(uid_t uid);   DESCRIPTION The getpwnam() function returns a pointer to a structure containing the broken out fields of a line from /etc/passwd for the entry that matches the user name name. The getpwuid() function returns a pointer to a structure containing the broken out fields of a line from /etc/passwd for the entry that matches the user uid uid. The passwd structure is defined in <pwd.h> as follows: struct passwd { char *pw_name; /* user name */ char *pw_passwd; /* user password */ uid_t pw_uid; /* user id */ gid_t pw_gid; /* group id */ char *pw_gecos; /* real name */ char *pw_dir; /* home directory */ char *pw_shell; /* shell program */ };   RETURN VALUE The getpwnam() and getpwuid() functions return the passwd structure, or NULL if the matching entry is not found or an error occurs.   ERRORS ENOMEM Insufficient memory to allocate passwd structure.   FILES /etc/passwd password database file   CONFORMING TO SVID 3, POSIX, BSD 4.3   SEE ALSO   Index NAME SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION RETURN VALUE ERRORS FILES CONFORMING TO SEE ALSO This document was created by using the manual pages. Time: 11:58:04 GMT, March 24, 2025