p The functions .Fn getgrnam and .Fn getgrgid search the group database for the given group name pointed to by .Ar name or the group id pointed to by .Ar gid , respectively, returning the first one encountered. Identical group names or group ids may result in undefined behavior.
p The .Fn getgrent function sequentially reads the group database and is intended for programs that wish to step through the complete list of groups.
p All three functions will open the group file for reading, if necessary.
p The functions .Fn getgrnam_r , .Fn getgrgid_r , and .Fn getgrent_r act like their non re-entrant counterparts respectively, updating the contents of .Ar grp and storing a pointer to that in .Ar result , and returning .Dv 0 . Storage used by .Ar grp is allocated from .Ar buffer , which is .Ar buflen bytes in size. If the requested entry cannot be found, .Ar result will point to .Dv NULL and .Dv 0 will be returned. If an error occurs, a non-zero error number will be returned and .Ar result will point to .Dv NULL . Calling .Fn getgrent_r from multiple threads will result in each thread reading a disjoint portion of the group database.
p The .Fn setgroupent function opens the file, or rewinds it if it is already open. If .Fa stayopen is non-zero, file descriptors are left open, significantly speeding functions subsequent calls. This functionality is unnecessary for .Fn getgrent as it doesn't close its file descriptors by default. It should also be noted that it is dangerous for long-running programs to use this functionality as the group file may be updated.
p The .Fn setgrent function is equivalent to .Fn setgroupent with an argument of zero.
p The .Fn endgrent function closes any open files. .Sh RETURN VALUES The functions .Fn getgrgid , .Fn getgrnam , and .Fn getgrent return a valid pointer to a group structure on success and a .Dv NULL pointer if the entry was not found or an error occurred. If an error occurred, the global variable .Dv errno is set to indicate the nature of the failure.
p The functions .Fn getgrgid_r , .Fn getgrnam_r , and .Fn getgrent_r return .Dv 0 on success or entry not found, and non-zero on failure, setting the global variable .Dv errno to indicate the nature of the failure.
p The .Fn setgroupent function returns the value 1 if successful, otherwise the value 0 is returned, setting the global variable .Dv errno to indicate the nature of the failure.
p The .Fn endgrent and .Fn setgrent functions have no return value. .Sh FILES l -tag -width /etc/group -compact t Pa /etc/group group database file .El .Sh COMPATIBILITY The historic function .Fn setgrfile , which allowed the specification of alternative group databases, has been deprecated and is no longer available. .Sh ERRORS The following error codes may be set in .Va errno for .Nm getgrent , .Nm getgrent_r , .Nm getgrnam , .Nm getgrnam_r , .Nm getgrgid , .Nm getgrgid_r , and .Nm setgroupent : l -tag -width Er t Bq Er EINTR A signal was caught during the database search. t Bq Er EIO An I/O error has occurred. t Bq Er EMFILE The limit on open files for this process has been reached. t Bq Er ENFILE The system limit on open files has been reached. .El
p The following error code may be set in .Va errno for .Nm getgrent_r , .Nm getgrnam_r , and .Nm getgrgid_r : l -tag -width Er t Bq Er ERANGE The resulting .Ft struct group does not fit in the space defined by .Dv buffer and .Dv buflen .El
p Other .Dv errno values may be set depending on the specific database backends. .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr getpwent 3 , .Xr group 5 , .Xr nsswitch.conf 5 .Sh STANDARDS The .Fn getgrgid and .Fn getgrnam functions conform to .St -p1003.1-90 . The .Fn getgrgid_r and .Fn getgrnam_r functions conform to .St -p1003.1c-95 . The .Fn endgrent , .Fn getgrent , and .Fn setgrent functions conform to .St -xpg4.2 and .St -p1003.1-2004 (XSI extension). .Sh HISTORY The functions .Fn endgrent , .Fn getgrent , .Fn getgrgid , .Fn getgrnam , and .Fn setgrent appeared in .At v7 . The functions .Fn setgrfile and .Fn setgroupent appeared in x 4.3 Reno . The functions .Fn getgrgid_r and .Fn getgrnam_r appeared in .Nx 3.0 . .Sh BUGS The functions .Fn getgrent , .Fn getgrgid , .Fn getgrnam , .Fn setgroupent and .Fn setgrent leave their results in an internal static object and return a pointer to that object. Subsequent calls to the same function will modify the same object.
p The functions .Fn getgrent , .Fn endgrent , .Fn setgroupent , and .Fn setgrent are fairly useless in a networked environment and should be avoided, if possible. .Fn getgrent makes no attempt to suppress duplicate information if multiple sources are specified in .Xr nsswitch.conf 5