Re^3: stat & uid

tc1364, i'd advise you to use the function mentioned by davidrw. my solution will work, but it's ugly, slow and insecure in comparison. sorry about that...

Comment on Re^3: stat & uid

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Re^4: stat & uid by Tanktalus (Canon) on Jul 13, 2005 at 22:17 UTC
Let me tell you from experience - looking at /etc/passwd is badness. There are so many ways that someone may not be using /etc/password (NIS/NIS+, PAM, LDAP, ...) that ... well, just don't. By using the getpw* functions, you tap into the same C runtime library that the OS uses to validate logins. Which means you'll get the value as used on the system, and not some random value. It's just a good habit to get into. And, besides, File::stat and User::pwent are way too easy to use relative to grepping and spliting the /etc/passwd file. :-)	[reply]

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Re^4: stat & uid
by Tanktalus (Canon) on Jul 13, 2005 at 22:17 UTC

Let me tell you from experience - looking at /etc/passwd is badness. There are so many ways that someone may not be using /etc/password (NIS/NIS+, PAM, LDAP, ...) that ... well, just don't. By using the getpw* functions, you tap into the same C runtime library that the OS uses to validate logins. Which means you'll get the value as used on the system, and not some random value.

It's just a good habit to get into. And, besides, File::stat and User::pwent are way too easy to use relative to grepping and spliting the /etc/passwd file. :-)

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