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8.3 Built-in Module pwd

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

Password database entries are reported as 7-tuples containing the following items from the password database (see `<pwd.h>'), in order: pw_name, pw_passwd, pw_uid, pw_gid, pw_gecos, pw_dir, pw_shell. The uid and gid items are integers, all others are strings. An exception is raised if the entry asked for cannot be found.

It defines the following items:

getpwuid(uid)
Return the password database entry for the given numeric user ID.

getpwnam(name)
Return the password database entry for the given user name.

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



guido@cnri.reston.va.us