GETUTENT(3) Library functions GETUTENT(3)NAME
getutent, getutid, getutline, pututline, setutent, endutent, utmpname -
access utmp file entries
SYNOPSIS
#include <utmp.h>
struct utmp *getutent(void);
struct utmp *getutid(struct utmp *ut);
struct utmp *getutline(struct utmp *ut);
struct utmp *pututline(struct utmp *ut);
void setutent(void);
void endutent(void);
void utmpname(const char *file);
DESCRIPTIONutmpname() sets the name of the utmp-format file for the other utmp
functions to access. If utmpname() is not used to set the filename
before the other functions are used, they assume _PATH_UTMP, as defined
in <paths.h>.
setutent() rewinds the file pointer to the beginning of the utmp file.
It is generally a Good Idea to call it before any of the other func‐
tions.
endutent() closes the utmp file. It should be called when the user
code is done accessing the file with the other functions.
getutent() reads a line from the current file position in the utmp
file. It returns a pointer to a structure containing the fields of the
line.
getutid() searches forward from the current file position in the utmp
file based upon ut. If ut->ut_type is one of RUN_LVL, BOOT_TIME,
NEW_TIME, or OLD_TIME, getutid() will find the first entry whose
ut_type field matches ut->ut_type. If ut->ut_type is one of
INIT_PROCESS, LOGIN_PROCESS, USER_PROCESS, or DEAD_PROCESS, getutid()
will find the first entry whose ut_id field matches ut->ut_id.
getutline() searches forward from the current file position in the utmp
file. It scans entries whose ut_type is USER_PROCESS or LOGIN_PROCESS
and returns the first one whose ut_line field matches ut->ut_line.
pututline() writes the utmp structure ut into the utmp file. It uses
getutid() to search for the proper place in the file to insert the new
entry. If it cannot find an appropriate slot for ut, pututline() will
append the new entry to the end of the file.
RETURN VALUEgetutent(), getutid(), getutline() and pututline() return a pointer to
a struct utmp on success, and NULL on failure. This struct utmp is
allocated in static storage, and may be overwritten by subsequent
calls.
REENTRANT VERSIONS
These above functions are not thread-safe. Glibc adds reentrant ver‐
sions
#define _GNU_SOURCE /* or _SVID_SOURCE or _BSD_SOURCE */
#include <utmp.h>
int getutent_r(struct utmp *ubuf, struct utmp **ubufp);
int getutid_r(struct utmp *ut,
struct utmp *ubuf, struct utmp **ubufp);
int getutline_r(struct utmp *ut,
struct utmp *ubuf, struct utmp **ubufp);
These functions are GNU extensions, analogs of the functions of the
same name without the _r suffix. The ubuf parameter gives these func‐
tions a place to store their result. On success they return 0, and a
pointer to the result is written in *ubufp. On error these functions
return -1.
EXAMPLE
The following example adds and removes a utmp record, assuming it is
run from within a pseudo terminal. For usage in a real application,
you should check the return values of getpwuid() and ttyname().
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <pwd.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <utmp.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
struct utmp entry;
system("echo before adding entry:;who");
entry.ut_type=USER_PROCESS;
entry.ut_pid=getpid();
strcpy(entry.ut_line,ttyname(0)+strlen("/dev/"));
/* only correct for ptys named /dev/tty[pqr][0-9a-z] */
strcpy(entry.ut_id,ttyname(0)+strlen("/dev/tty"));
time(&entry.ut_time);
strcpy(entry.ut_user,getpwuid(getuid())->pw_name);
memset(entry.ut_host,0,UT_HOSTSIZE);
entry.ut_addr=0;
setutent();
pututline(&entry);
system("echo after adding entry:;who");
entry.ut_type=DEAD_PROCESS;
memset(entry.ut_line,0,UT_LINESIZE);
entry.ut_time=0;
memset(entry.ut_user,0,UT_NAMESIZE);
setutent();
pututline(&entry);
system("echo after removing entry:;who");
endutent();
return 0;
}
FILES
/var/run/utmp database of currently logged-in users
/var/log/wtmp database of past user logins
CONFORMING TO
XPG2, SVr4.
In XPG2 and SVID 2 the function pututline() is documented to return
void, and that is what it does on many systems (AIX, HP-UX, Linux
libc5). HP-UX introduces a new function _pututline() with the proto‐
type given above for pututline() (also found in Linux libc5).
All these functions are obsolete now on non-Linux systems.
POSIX.1-2001, following SUSv1, does not have any of these functions,
but instead uses
#include <utmpx.h>
struct utmpx *getutxent(void);
struct utmpx *getutxid(const struct utmpx *);
struct utmpx *getutxline(const struct utmpx *);
struct utmpx *pututxline(const struct utmpx *);
void setutxent(void);
void endutxent(void);
The utmpx structure is a superset of the utmp structure, with addi‐
tional fields, and larger versions of the existing fields. The corre‐
sponding files are often /var/*/utmpx and /var/*/wtmpx.
Linux glibc on the other hand does not use utmpx since its utmp struc‐
ture is already large enough. The functions getutxent etc. are aliases
for getutent etc.
SEE ALSOutmp(5)
1996-07-25 GETUTENT(3)