Password and gecos

[Eoin Woods]

quennevi at IRO.UMontreal.CA (Charles Quenneville) writes:

.
.   Deleted stuff (sorry I didn't really understand what you wanted).
.
>Plus, could anyone tell me how to extract the fields in the 
>/etc/passwd file? Either by using the structure in the pwd.h file
>or simply by using for's and while's.

#include <pwd.h>                              <-
                                               |
struct passwd *getpwuid(int uid) ;             |   Sys V (BSD has a similar
OR                                             |    if not identical system)
struct passwd *getpwname(char *username) ;    <-


>A last question: Could you tell me what gecos means?

GECOS stands for General Electric Computer Operating System -- An operating
system that is now the property of Groupe Bull (and shipped on our
proprietry mainframe kit).

The reason that the text field in the password file is called the GECOS
field is that in 'original' Unix (running on 'research' at Bell Labs),
it was used to store authorisation and accounting information for use
when submitting batch jobs to the local GECOS mainframe. (Even in those
days, Bull was integrating open and proprietry systems! :-)

Eoin.
--
(This is not an official statement from Groupe Bull but is all my own work!)
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~    Eoin Woods, Software Development Group, Bull HN Information Systems,   ~
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~                   < Eoin.Woods at hemel.bull.co.uk >                         ~
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