.\" $NetBSD: getgrent.3,v 1.32 2018/02/07 11:16:05 pgoyette Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1991, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)getgrent.3 8.2 (Berkeley) 4/19/94 .\" .Dd February 7, 2018 .Dt GETGRENT 3 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm getgrent , .Nm getgrent_r , .Nm getgrgid , .Nm getgrgid_r , .Nm getgrnam , .Nm getgrnam_r , .Nm setgroupent , .\" .Nm setgrfile , .Nm setgrent , .Nm endgrent .Nd group database operations .Sh LIBRARY .Lb libc .Sh SYNOPSIS .In grp.h .Ft struct group * .Fn getgrent void .Ft int .Fo getgrent_r .Fa "struct group *grp" .Fa "char *buffer" .Fa "size_t buflen" .Fa "struct group **result" .Fc .Ft struct group * .Fn getgrgid "gid_t gid" .Ft int .Fo getgrgid_r .Fa "gid_t gid" .Fa "struct group *grp" .Fa "char *buffer" .Fa "size_t buflen" .Fa "struct group **result" .Fc .Ft struct group * .Fn getgrnam "const char *name" .Ft int .Fo getgrnam_r .Fa "const char *name" .Fa "struct group *grp" .Fa "char *buffer" .Fa "size_t buflen" .Fa "struct group **result" .Fc .Ft int .Fn setgroupent "int stayopen" .\" .Ft void .\" .Fn setgrfile "const char *name" .Ft void .Fn setgrent void .Ft void .Fn endgrent void .Sh DESCRIPTION These functions operate on the group database which is described in .Xr group 5 . Each line of the database is defined by the structure .Ar group found in the include file .In grp.h : .Bd -literal -offset indent struct group { char *gr_name; /* group name */ char *gr_passwd; /* group password */ gid_t gr_gid; /* group id */ char **gr_mem; /* group members */ }; .Ed .Pp The functions .Fn getgrnam and .Fn getgrgid search the group database for the given group name pointed to by .Ar name or the group id pointed to by .Ar gid , respectively, returning the first one encountered. Identical group names or group ids may result in undefined behavior. .Pp The .Fn getgrent function sequentially reads the group database and is intended for programs that wish to step through the complete list of groups. .Pp All three functions will open the group file for reading, if necessary. .Pp The functions .Fn getgrnam_r , .Fn getgrgid_r , and .Fn getgrent_r act like their non re-entrant counterparts respectively, updating the contents of .Ar grp and storing a pointer to that in .Ar result , and returning .Dv 0 . Storage used by .Ar grp is allocated from .Ar buffer , which is .Ar buflen bytes in size. If the requested entry cannot be found, .Ar result will point to .Dv NULL and .Dv 0 will be returned. If an error occurs, a non-zero error number will be returned and .Ar result will point to .Dv NULL . Calling .Fn getgrent_r from multiple threads will result in each thread reading a disjoint portion of the group database. .Pp The .Fn setgroupent function opens the file, or rewinds it if it is already open. If .Fa stayopen is non-zero, file descriptors are left open, significantly speeding functions subsequent calls. This functionality is unnecessary for .Fn getgrent as it doesn't close its file descriptors by default. It should also be noted that it is dangerous for long-running programs to use this functionality as the group file may be updated. .Pp The .Fn setgrent function is equivalent to .Fn setgroupent with an argument of zero. .Pp The .Fn endgrent function closes any open files. .Sh RETURN VALUES The functions .Fn getgrgid , .Fn getgrnam , and .Fn getgrent return a valid pointer to a group structure on success and a .Dv NULL pointer if the entry was not found or an error occurred. If an error occurred, the global variable .Dv errno is set to indicate the nature of the failure. .Pp The functions .Fn getgrgid_r , .Fn getgrnam_r , and .Fn getgrent_r return .Dv 0 on success or entry not found, and non-zero on failure, setting the global variable .Dv errno to indicate the nature of the failure. .Pp The .Fn setgroupent function returns the value 1 if successful, otherwise the value 0 is returned, setting the global variable .Dv errno to indicate the nature of the failure. .Pp The .Fn endgrent and .Fn setgrent functions have no return value. .Sh FILES .Bl -tag -width /etc/group -compact .It Pa /etc/group group database file .El .Sh COMPATIBILITY The historic function .Fn setgrfile , which allowed the specification of alternative group databases, has been deprecated and is no longer available. .Sh ERRORS The following error codes may be set in .Va errno for .Nm getgrent , .Nm getgrent_r , .Nm getgrnam , .Nm getgrnam_r , .Nm getgrgid , .Nm getgrgid_r , and .Nm setgroupent : .Bl -tag -width Er .It Bq Er EINTR A signal was caught during the database search. .It Bq Er EIO An I/O error has occurred. .It Bq Er EMFILE The limit on open files for this process has been reached. .It Bq Er ENFILE The system limit on open files has been reached. .El .Pp The following error code may be set in .Va errno for .Nm getgrent_r , .Nm getgrnam_r , and .Nm getgrgid_r : .Bl -tag -width Er .It Bq Er ERANGE The resulting .Ft struct group does not fit in the space defined by .Dv buffer and .Dv buflen .El .Pp Other .Dv errno values may be set depending on the specific database backends. .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr getpwent 3 , .Xr group 5 , .Xr nsswitch.conf 5 .Sh STANDARDS The .Fn getgrgid and .Fn getgrnam functions conform to .St -p1003.1-90 . The .Fn getgrgid_r and .Fn getgrnam_r functions conform to .St -p1003.1c-95 . The .Fn endgrent , .Fn getgrent , and .Fn setgrent functions conform to .St -xpg4.2 and .St -p1003.1-2004 (XSI extension). .Sh HISTORY The functions .Fn endgrent , .Fn getgrent , .Fn getgrgid , .Fn getgrnam , and .Fn setgrent appeared in .At v7 . The functions .Fn setgrfile and .Fn setgroupent appeared in .Bx 4.3 Reno . The functions .Fn getgrgid_r and .Fn getgrnam_r appeared in .Nx 3.0 . .Sh BUGS The functions .Fn getgrent , .Fn getgrgid , .Fn getgrnam , .Fn setgroupent and .Fn setgrent leave their results in an internal static object and return a pointer to that object. Subsequent calls to the same function will modify the same object. .Pp The functions .Fn getgrent , .Fn endgrent , .Fn setgroupent , and .Fn setgrent are fairly useless in a networked environment and should be avoided, if possible. .Fn getgrent makes no attempt to suppress duplicate information if multiple sources are specified in .Xr nsswitch.conf 5