:mod:pwd --- The password database

.. module:: pwd :platform: Unix :synopsis: The password database (getpwnam() and friends).

---

This module provides access to the Unix user account and password database. It is available on all Unix versions.

Password database entries are reported as a tuple-like object, whose attributes correspond to the members of the passwd structure (Attribute field below, see <pwd.h>):

+-------+---------------+-----------------------------+ | Index | Attribute | Meaning | +=======+===============+=============================+ | 0 | pw_name | Login name | +-------+---------------+-----------------------------+ | 1 | pw_passwd | Optional encrypted password | +-------+---------------+-----------------------------+ | 2 | pw_uid | Numerical user ID | +-------+---------------+-----------------------------+ | 3 | pw_gid | Numerical group ID | +-------+---------------+-----------------------------+ | 4 | pw_gecos | User name or comment field | +-------+---------------+-----------------------------+ | 5 | pw_dir | User home directory | +-------+---------------+-----------------------------+ | 6 | pw_shell | User command interpreter | +-------+---------------+-----------------------------+

The uid and gid items are integers, all others are strings. :exc:KeyError is raised if the entry asked for cannot be found.

.. note::

.. index:: module: crypt

In traditional Unix the field pw_passwd usually contains a password encrypted with a DES derived algorithm (see module :mod:crypt). However most modern unices use a so-called shadow password system. On those unices the pw_passwd field only contains an asterisk ('*') or the letter 'x' where the encrypted password is stored in a file :file:/etc/shadow which is not world readable. Whether the pw_passwd field contains anything useful is system-dependent. If available, the :mod:spwd module should be used where access to the encrypted password is required.

It defines the following items:

.. function:: getpwuid(uid)

Return the password database entry for the given numeric user ID.

.. function:: getpwnam(name)

Return the password database entry for the given user name.

.. function:: getpwall()

Return a list of all available password database entries, in arbitrary order.

.. seealso::

Module :mod:grp An interface to the group database, similar to this.

Module :mod:spwd An interface to the shadow password database, similar to this.