# deal with absence of pwfile.
unless ( -e $passwd ) {
  # PANIC, quit, etc.
  die("No passwd file found");
}

# open file handle for read
open(PASSWD, $passwd) or die("Cannot open passwd file for read.");

# push each entry into an array
while (<PASSWD>) {
  # remove the trailing \n
  chomp $_;
  # add line to array
  push (@pwfile, $_);
}

#close the file handle.
close(PASSWD);