getspent() -- General Function (libc)

Get a shadow-password record
#include <shadow.h>
struct spwd *getspent()

The COHERENT  system has  four routines  that search the  file /etc/shadow,
which  contains  the password  of  every user  of  the system.   getspent()
returns a  record from this  file.  If a  program has already  read entries
from /etc/shadow, getspent()  returns the next entry; otherwise, it returns
the first entry.

If an  error occurs,  getspent() returns  NULL.  Otherwise, it  returns the
address of  an object with  the structure spwd  which is defined  in header
file <shadow.h>. For a description of this structure, see the Lexicon
entry for shadow.h.

See Also

endspent(),
libc,
setspent(),
shadow,
shadow.h

Notes

All structures  and information  returned are  in static areas  internal to
getspent(). Therefore,  information from a previous  call is overwritten by
each subsequent call.

© 2012 by Stephen A. Ness