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<title>8.2 pwd -- The password database</title>
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<H1><A NAME="SECTION0010200000000000000000">
8.2 <tt class="module">pwd</tt> --
The password database</A>
</H1>
<P>
<A NAME="module-pwd"></A>
<p class="availability">Availability: <span
class="platform">Unix</span>.</p>
<P>
This module provides access to the <span class="Unix">Unix</span> user account and password
database. It is available on all <span class="Unix">Unix</span> versions.
<P>
Password database entries are reported as a tuple-like object, whose
attributes correspond to the members of the <code>passwd</code> structure
(Attribute field below, see <code><pwd.h></code>):
<P>
<div class="center"><table class="realtable">
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="right" >Index</th>
<th class="left" >Attribute</th>
<th class="left" >Meaning</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td class="right" valign="baseline">0</td>
<td class="left" ><code>pw_name</code></td>
<td class="left" >Login name</td></tr>
<tr><td class="right" valign="baseline">1</td>
<td class="left" ><code>pw_passwd</code></td>
<td class="left" >Optional encrypted password</td></tr>
<tr><td class="right" valign="baseline">2</td>
<td class="left" ><code>pw_uid</code></td>
<td class="left" >Numerical user ID</td></tr>
<tr><td class="right" valign="baseline">3</td>
<td class="left" ><code>pw_gid</code></td>
<td class="left" >Numerical group ID</td></tr>
<tr><td class="right" valign="baseline">4</td>
<td class="left" ><code>pw_gecos</code></td>
<td class="left" >User name or comment field</td></tr>
<tr><td class="right" valign="baseline">5</td>
<td class="left" ><code>pw_dir</code></td>
<td class="left" >User home directory</td></tr>
<tr><td class="right" valign="baseline">6</td>
<td class="left" ><code>pw_shell</code></td>
<td class="left" >User command interpreter</td></tr></tbody>
</table></div>
<P>
The uid and gid items are integers, all others are strings.
<tt class="exception">KeyError</tt> is raised if the entry asked for cannot be found.
<P>
<span class="note"><b class="label">Note:</b>
In traditional <span class="Unix">Unix</span> the field <code>pw_passwd</code> usually
contains a password encrypted with a DES derived algorithm (see module
<tt class="module"><a href="module-crypt.html">crypt</a></tt><a id='l2h-2973' xml:id='l2h-2973'></a>). However most modern unices
use a so-called <em>shadow password</em> system. On those unices the
<var>pw_passwd</var> field only contains an asterisk (<code>'*'</code>) or the
letter "<tt class="character">x</tt>" where the encrypted password is stored in a file
<span class="file">/etc/shadow</span> which is not world readable. Whether the <var>pw_passwd</var>
field contains anything useful is system-dependent.</span>
<P>
It defines the following items:
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-2974' xml:id='l2h-2974' class="function">getpwuid</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>uid</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Return the password database entry for the given numeric user ID.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-2975' xml:id='l2h-2975' class="function">getpwnam</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>name</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Return the password database entry for the given user name.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-2976' xml:id='l2h-2976' class="function">getpwall</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var></var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Return a list of all available password database entries, in arbitrary order.
</dl>
<P>
<div class="seealso">
<p class="heading">See Also:</p>
<dl compact="compact" class="seemodule">
<dt>Module <b><tt class="module"><a href="module-grp.html">grp</a></tt>:</b>
<dd>An interface to the group database, similar to this.
</dl>
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<span class="release-info">Release 2.4.3, documentation updated on 29 March 2006.</span>
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