posix
Class Passwd

java.lang.Object
  posix.Passwd

public class Passwd
extends Object

POSIX style access to the unix passwd file. There is no caching. This gets you the most up to date data, but if you are looking up lots of user ids, you probably want to load them into a Hashtable.

This class is implemented in Java for the standard text passwd files used by unix systems. Some unix systems replace the text format with an indexed database of some description. This improves performance when there are thousands of users, but we won't be able to take advantage of that. Such systems should still keep a text version in the usual place.

Field Summary

String	pw_dir
String	pw_gecos
int	pw_gid
String	pw_name
String	pw_passwd
String	pw_shell
int	pw_uid

Constructor Summary

Passwd()
Access the standard passwd file.

Passwd(String path)
Access an arbitrary passwd format file.

Method Summary

void	endpwent() Close the passwd file.
String	getPath()
boolean	getpwent() Read the next record in the passwd file.
boolean	getpwnam(String nam) Read the first passwd record that matches a user name.
boolean	getpwuid(int uid) Read the passwd record that matches a user id.
boolean	putpwent() Update the passwd file with the current values.
void	setpwent() Open and position the passwd file just before the first record.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Field Detail

pw_name

public String pw_name

pw_passwd

public String pw_passwd

pw_uid

public int pw_uid

pw_gid

public int pw_gid

pw_gecos

public String pw_gecos

pw_dir

public String pw_dir

pw_shell

public String pw_shell

Constructor Detail

Passwd

public Passwd(String path)

Access an arbitrary passwd format file.

Passwd

public Passwd()

Access the standard passwd file. For unix, this is /etc/passwd.

Method Detail

getpwent

public boolean getpwent()
                 throws IOException

Read the next record in the passwd file.

Returns:

true if we found another record

Throws:

IOException

getPath

public String getPath()

setpwent

public void setpwent()
              throws IOException

Open and position the passwd file just before the first record.

Throws:

IOException

getpwuid

public boolean getpwuid(int uid)
                 throws IOException

Read the passwd record that matches a user id.

Parameters:

uid - The user id

Returns:

true if the record is found

Throws:

IOException

getpwnam

public boolean getpwnam(String nam)
                 throws IOException

Read the first passwd record that matches a user name.

Parameters:

nam - The user name

Returns:

true if the record is found

Throws:

IOException

putpwent

public boolean putpwent()
                 throws IOException

Update the passwd file with the current values. This is not yet implemented. A proper implementation requires the traditional unix text file locking mechanism (which uses a temporary output file with a well known name as the lock). Traditional locking will soon be another feature of the posix package.

Throws:

IOException

endpwent

public void endpwent()

Close the passwd file.