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5.29 System User Database

Built-in Function: string getpwnam (string name) ¶

Built-in Function: string getpwuid (number uid) ¶

Look for the user name (getpwnam) or user ID uid (getpwuid) in the system password database and return the corresponding record, if found. If not found, raise the ‘e_not_found’ exception.

The returned record consists of six fields, separated by colon sign:

uname:passwd:uid:gid:gecos:dir:shell

Field	Meaning
uname	user name
passwd	user password
uid	user ID
gid	group ID
gecos	real name
dir	home directory
shell	shell program

For example:

getpwnam("gray")
⇒ "gray:x:1000:1000:Sergey Poznyakoff:/home/gray:/bin/bash"

Following two functions can be used to test for existence of a key in the user database:

Built-in Function: boolean mappwnam (string name) ¶

Built-in Function: boolean mappwuid (number uid) ¶

Return ‘true’ if name (or uid) is found in the system user database.