[Chapter 3] 3.2.61 getpwent
Author: Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen & Randal L. Schwartz
Date: 1999-07-02T01:50:30Z

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| Chapter 3 Functions |

### 3.2.61 getpwent

    getpwent
    setpwent
    endpwent

These functions do the same thing as their like-named system library routines - see getpwent(3). They iterate through your /etc/passwd file (or its moral equivalent coming from some server somewhere). The return value in list context is:

    ($name,$passwd,$uid,$gid,$quota,$comment,$gcos,$dir,$shell)

Some machines may use the quota and comment fields for other purposes, but the remaining fields will always be the same. To set up a hash for translating login names to uids, say this:

    while (($name, $passwd, $uid) = getpwent) {
        $uid{$name} = $uid;
    }

In scalar context, getpwent returns only the username.

3.2.60 getprotoent |  | 3.2.62 getpwnam