qmail-getpw(8) qmail-getpw(8) NNAAMMEE qmail-getpw - give addresses to users SSYYNNOOPPSSIISS qqmmaaiill--ggeettppww _l_o_c_a_l DDEESSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONN In qqmmaaiill, each user controls a vast array of local addresses. qqmmaaiill-- ggeettppww finds the user that controls a particular address, _l_o_c_a_l. It prints six pieces of information, each terminated by NUL: _u_s_e_r; _u_i_d; _g_i_d; _h_o_m_e_d_i_r; _d_a_s_h; and _e_x_t. The user’s account name is _u_s_e_r; the user’s uid and gid in decimal are _u_i_d and _g_i_d; the user’s home direc- tory is _h_o_m_e_d_i_r; and messages to _l_o_c_a_l will be handled by _h_o_m_e_- _d_i_r//..qqmmaaiill_d_a_s_h_e_x_t. In case of trouble, qqmmaaiill--ggeettppww exits nonzero without printing any- thing. WWAARRNNIINNGG:: The operating system’s ggeettppwwnnaamm function, which is at the heart of qqmmaaiill--ggeettppww, is inherently unreliable: it fails to distinguish between temporary errors and nonexistent users. Future versions of ggeettppwwnnaamm should return ETXTBSY to indicate temporary errors and ESRCH to indicate nonexistent users. RRUULLEESS qqmmaaiill--ggeettppww considers an account in //eettcc//ppaasssswwdd to be a user if (1) the account has a nonzero uid, (2) the account’s home directory exists (and is visible to qqmmaaiill--ggeettppww), and (3) the account owns its home direc- tory. qqmmaaiill--ggeettppww ignores account names containing uppercase letters. qqmmaaiill--ggeettppww also assumes that all account names are shorter than 32 characters. qqmmaaiill--ggeettppww gives each user control over the basic _u_s_e_r address and all addresses of the form _u_s_e_r--_a_n_y_t_h_i_n_g. When _l_o_c_a_l is _u_s_e_r, _d_a_s_h and _e_x_t are both empty. When _l_o_c_a_l is _u_s_e_r--_a_n_y_t_h_i_n_g, _d_a_s_h is a hyphen and _e_x_t is _a_n_y_t_h_i_n_g. _u_s_e_r may appear in any combination of uppercase and low- ercase letters at the front of _l_o_c_a_l. A catch-all user, aalliiaass, controls all other addresses. In this case _e_x_t is _l_o_c_a_l and _d_a_s_h is a hyphen. You can override all of qqmmaaiill--ggeettppww’s decisions with the qqmmaaiill--uusseerrss mechanism, which is reliable, highly configurable, and much faster than qqmmaaiill--ggeettppww. SSEEEE AALLSSOO qmail-users(5), qmail-lspawn(8) qmail-getpw(8)