Edit File: pwd.html
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <title>35.2. pwd — The password database — Python 2.7.5 documentation</title> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/default.css" type="text/css" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/pygments.css" type="text/css" /> <script type="text/javascript"> var DOCUMENTATION_OPTIONS = { URL_ROOT: '../', VERSION: '2.7.5', COLLAPSE_INDEX: false, FILE_SUFFIX: '.html', HAS_SOURCE: true }; </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/jquery.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/underscore.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/doctools.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/sidebar.js"></script> <link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" title="Search within Python 2.7.5 documentation" href="../_static/opensearch.xml"/> <link rel="author" title="About these documents" href="../about.html" /> <link rel="copyright" title="Copyright" href="../copyright.html" /> <link rel="top" title="Python 2.7.5 documentation" href="../index.html" /> <link rel="up" title="35. 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Unix Specific Services</a> »</li> </ul> </div> <div class="document"> <div class="documentwrapper"> <div class="bodywrapper"> <div class="body"> <div class="section" id="module-pwd"> <span id="pwd-the-password-database"></span><h1>35.2. <a class="reference internal" href="#module-pwd" title="pwd: The password database (getpwnam() and friends). (Unix)"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">pwd</span></tt></a> — The password database<a class="headerlink" href="#module-pwd" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1> <p>This module provides access to the Unix user account and password database. It is available on all Unix versions.</p> <p>Password database entries are reported as a tuple-like object, whose attributes correspond to the members of the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">passwd</span></tt> structure (Attribute field below, see <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre"><pwd.h></span></tt>):</p> <table border="1" class="docutils"> <colgroup> <col width="14%" /> <col width="29%" /> <col width="57%" /> </colgroup> <thead valign="bottom"> <tr class="row-odd"><th class="head">Index</th> <th class="head">Attribute</th> <th class="head">Meaning</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody valign="top"> <tr class="row-even"><td>0</td> <td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pw_name</span></tt></td> <td>Login name</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>1</td> <td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pw_passwd</span></tt></td> <td>Optional encrypted password</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>2</td> <td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pw_uid</span></tt></td> <td>Numerical user ID</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>3</td> <td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pw_gid</span></tt></td> <td>Numerical group ID</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>4</td> <td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pw_gecos</span></tt></td> <td>User name or comment field</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>5</td> <td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pw_dir</span></tt></td> <td>User home directory</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>6</td> <td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pw_shell</span></tt></td> <td>User command interpreter</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>The uid and gid items are integers, all others are strings. <a class="reference internal" href="exceptions.html#exceptions.KeyError" title="exceptions.KeyError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">KeyError</span></tt></a> is raised if the entry asked for cannot be found.</p> <div class="admonition note"> <p class="first admonition-title">Note</p> <p class="last" id="index-0">In traditional Unix the field <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pw_passwd</span></tt> usually contains a password encrypted with a DES derived algorithm (see module <a class="reference internal" href="crypt.html#module-crypt" title="crypt: The crypt() function used to check Unix passwords. (Unix)"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">crypt</span></tt></a>). However most modern unices use a so-called <em>shadow password</em> system. On those unices the <em>pw_passwd</em> field only contains an asterisk (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'*'</span></tt>) or the letter <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'x'</span></tt> where the encrypted password is stored in a file <tt class="file docutils literal"><span class="pre">/etc/shadow</span></tt> which is not world readable. Whether the <em>pw_passwd</em> field contains anything useful is system-dependent. If available, the <a class="reference internal" href="spwd.html#module-spwd" title="spwd: The shadow password database (getspnam() and friends). (Unix)"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">spwd</span></tt></a> module should be used where access to the encrypted password is required.</p> </div> <p>It defines the following items:</p> <dl class="function"> <dt id="pwd.getpwuid"> <tt class="descclassname">pwd.</tt><tt class="descname">getpwuid</tt><big>(</big><em>uid</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#pwd.getpwuid" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return the password database entry for the given numeric user ID.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="function"> <dt id="pwd.getpwnam"> <tt class="descclassname">pwd.</tt><tt class="descname">getpwnam</tt><big>(</big><em>name</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#pwd.getpwnam" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return the password database entry for the given user name.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="function"> <dt id="pwd.getpwall"> <tt class="descclassname">pwd.</tt><tt class="descname">getpwall</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#pwd.getpwall" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return a list of all available password database entries, in arbitrary order.</p> </dd></dl> <div class="admonition-see-also admonition seealso"> <p class="first admonition-title">See also</p> <dl class="last docutils"> <dt>Module <a class="reference internal" href="grp.html#module-grp" title="grp: The group database (getgrnam() and friends). (Unix)"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">grp</span></tt></a></dt> <dd>An interface to the group database, similar to this.</dd> <dt>Module <a class="reference internal" href="spwd.html#module-spwd" title="spwd: The shadow password database (getspnam() and friends). (Unix)"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">spwd</span></tt></a></dt> <dd>An interface to the shadow password database, similar to this.</dd> </dl> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="sphinxsidebar"> <div class="sphinxsidebarwrapper"> <h4>Previous topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="posix.html" title="previous chapter">35.1. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">posix</span></tt> — The most common POSIX system calls</a></p> <h4>Next topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="spwd.html" title="next chapter">35.3. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">spwd</span></tt> — The shadow password database</a></p> <h3>This Page</h3> <ul class="this-page-menu"> <li><a href="../bugs.html">Report a Bug</a></li> <li><a href="../_sources/library/pwd.txt" rel="nofollow">Show Source</a></li> </ul> <div id="searchbox" style="display: none"> <h3>Quick search</h3> <form class="search" action="../search.html" method="get"> <input type="text" name="q" /> <input type="submit" value="Go" /> <input type="hidden" name="check_keywords" value="yes" /> <input type="hidden" name="area" value="default" /> </form> <p class="searchtip" style="font-size: 90%"> Enter search terms or a module, class or function name. </p> </div> <script type="text/javascript">$('#searchbox').show(0);</script> </div> </div> <div class="clearer"></div> </div> <div class="related"> <h3>Navigation</h3> <ul> <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px"> <a href="../genindex.html" title="General Index" >index</a></li> <li class="right" > <a href="../py-modindex.html" title="Python Module Index" >modules</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="spwd.html" title="35.3. spwd — The shadow password database" >next</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="posix.html" title="35.1. posix — The most common POSIX system calls" >previous</a> |</li> <li><img src="../_static/py.png" alt="" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-top: -1px"/></li> <li><a href="http://www.python.org/">Python</a> »</li> <li> <a href="../index.html">Python 2.7.5 documentation</a> » </li> <li><a href="index.html" >The Python Standard Library</a> »</li> <li><a href="unix.html" >35. 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