getgrnam(3)

NAME
getgrnam, getgrnam_r, getgrgid, getgrgid_r - get group file entry

LIBRARY
Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <grp.h>

struct group *getgrnam(const char *name);
struct group *getgrgid(gid_t gid);

int getgrnam_r(size_t size;
               const char *restrict name, struct group *restrict grp,
               char buf[restrict size], size_t size,
               struct group **restrict result);
int getgrgid_r(size_t size;
               gid_t gid, struct group *restrict grp,
               char buf[restrict size], size_t size,
               struct group **restrict result);

    Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

getgrnam_r(), getgrgid_r():
    _POSIX_C_SOURCE
        || /* glibc <= 2.19: */ _BSD_SOURCE || _SVID_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION
The getgrnam() function returns a pointer to a structure containing the broken-out fields of the record in the group database (e.g., the local group file /etc/group, NIS, and LDAP) that matches the group name name.

The getgrgid() function returns a pointer to a structure containing the broken-out fields of the record in the group database that matches the group ID gid.

The group structure is defined in <grp.h> as follows:

    struct group {
        char   *gr_name;        /* group name */
        char   *gr_passwd;      /* group password */
        gid_t   gr_gid;         /* group ID */
        char  **gr_mem;         /* NULL-terminated array of pointers
                                   to names of group members */
    };

For more information about the fields of this structure, see group(5).

The getgrnam_r() and getgrgid_r() functions obtain the same information as getgrnam() and getgrgid(), but store the retrieved group structure in the space pointed to by grp. The string fields pointed to by the members of the group structure are stored in the buffer buf of size size. A pointer to the result (in case of success) or NULL (in case no entry was found or an error occurred) is stored in *result.

The call

    sysconf(_SC_GETGR_R_SIZE_MAX)

returns either -1, without changing errno, or an initial suggested size for buf. (If this size is too small, the call fails with ERANGE, in which case the caller can retry with a larger buffer.)

RETURN VALUE
The getgrnam() and getgrgid() functions return a pointer to a group structure, or NULL if the matching entry is not found or an error occurs. If an error occurs, errno is set to indicate the error. If one wants to check errno after the call, it should be set to zero before the call.

The return value may point to a static area, and may be overwritten by subsequent calls to getgrent(3), getgrgid(), or getgrnam(). (Do not pass the returned pointer to free(3).)

On success, getgrnam_r() and getgrgid_r() return zero, and set *result to grp. If no matching group record was found, these functions return 0 and store NULL in *result. In case of error, an error number is returned, and NULL is stored in *result.

ERRORS

0 or ENOENT or ESRCH or EBADF or EPERM or ...
    The given name or gid was not found.

EINTR
    A signal was caught; see signal(7).

EIO I/O error.

EMFILE
    The per-process limit on the number of open file descriptors has been reached.

ENFILE
    The system-wide limit on the total number of open files has been reached.

ENOMEM
    Insufficient memory to allocate group structure.

ERANGE
    Insufficient buffer space supplied.

FILES

/etc/group
    local group database file

ATTRIBUTES
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).
Interface | Attribute | Value
 | Thread safety | MT-Unsafe race:grnam locale
 | Thread safety | MT-Unsafe race:grgid locale
 | Thread safety | MT-Safe locale

VERSIONS
The formulation given above under "RETURN VALUE" is from POSIX.1. It does not call "not found" an error, hence does not specify what value errno might have in this situation. But that makes it impossible to recognize errors. One might argue that according to POSIX errno should be left unchanged if an entry is not found. Experiments on various UNIX-like systems show that lots of different values occur in this situation: 0, ENOENT, EBADF, ESRCH, EWOULDBLOCK, EPERM, and probably others.

STANDARDS
POSIX.1-2008.

HISTORY
POSIX.1-2001, SVr4, 4.3BSD.

SEE ALSO
endgrent(3), fgetgrent(3), getgrent(3), getpwnam(3), setgrent(3), group(5)