The passwd structure contains the following fields:
Member
Description
char *pw_name;
/* login name
*/
char *pw_passwd;
/* password
*/
uid_t pw_uid;
/* user ID
*/
short __pad1;
/* padded space
*/
gid_t pw_gid;
/* group ID
*/
short __pad2;
/* padded space
*/
char *pw_age;
/* age of pw_passwd
*/
char *pw_comment;
/* user information
*/
char *pw_gecos;
/* historical field
*/
char *pw_dir;
/* user's login directory
*/
char *pw_shell;
/* user's login shell
*/
/etc/passwd entries
The information in the passwd structure is used to
create an entry in the /etc/passwd that is parsed with the
fgetpwent(S)
routine. Each member in
the structure in which data is present is placed in the password
file entry separated by colons, as shown in this example:
rufusf:*:203:50:Rufus T. Firefly:/usr/rufusf:/bin/sh
In this case, the members shown are, respectively, pw_name,
pw_passwd, pw_uid, pw_gid, pw_comment, pw_dir, and
pw_shell. When an asterisk is present in the
pw_passwd member, the password is handled by a
security scheme.
Refer to System Administration Guide
for more information on password security.
The full length of an /etc/passwd entry cannot exceed
BUFSIZ characters.