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# 36.2. `pwd` — The password database

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. `KeyError` is raised if the entry asked for cannot be found.

Note

In traditional Unix the field `pw_passwd` usually contains a password encrypted with a DES derived algorithm (see module `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 `/etc/shadow` which is not world readable. Whether the pw_passwd field contains anything useful is system-dependent. If available, the `spwd` module should be used where access to the encrypted password is required.

It defines the following items:

`pwd.``getpwuid`(uid)

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

`pwd.``getpwnam`(name)

  Return the password database entry for the given user name.

`pwd.``getpwall`()

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

See also

Module `grp`

  An interface to the group database, similar to this.

Module `spwd`

  An interface to the shadow password database, similar to this.