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31.13.1 The Data Structure that Describes a User ¶

The functions and data structures for accessing the system user database are declared in the header file pwd.h.

Data Type: struct passwd ¶

The passwd data structure is used to hold information about entries in the system user data base. It has at least the following members:

char *pw_name

The user’s login name.

char *pw_passwd

Historically, this field would hold the one-way hash of the user’s passphrase. Nowadays, it will almost always be the single character ‘x’, indicating that the hash is in the shadow database.

uid_t pw_uid

The user ID number.

gid_t pw_gid

The user’s default group ID number.

char *pw_gecos

A string typically containing the user’s real name, and possibly other information such as a phone number.

char *pw_dir

The user’s home directory, or initial working directory. This might be a null pointer, in which case the interpretation is system-dependent.

char *pw_shell

The user’s default shell, or the initial program run when the user logs in. This might be a null pointer, indicating that the system default should be used.