NAME

Passwd::Unix::Alt - (DEPRECATED) Manipulate /etc/{passwd,shadow,group,gshadow} entries

VERSION

version 0.5213

SYNOPSIS

        use Passwd::Unix::Alt;

        my $pu = Passwd::Unix::Alt->new();

        # add a new user
        $pu->user("example", $pu->encpass("my_secret"), $pu->maxuid + 1, 10,
                                          "My User", "/home/example", "/bin/bash");
        die $Passwd::Unix::Alt::errstr if $Passwd::Unix::Alt::errstr;

        # change a user's password
        $pu->passwd("example", $pu->encpass("newsecret"));
        die $Passwd::Unix::Alt::errstr if $Passwd::Unix::Alt::errstr;

        # list users
        foreach my $user ($pu->users) {
            print "Username: $user\nFull Name: ", $pu->gecos($user), "\n\n";
        }

        # get uid
        my $uid = $pu->uid('example');

        # delete user
        $pu->del("example");
        die $Passwd::Unix::Alt::errstr if $Passwd::Unix::Alt::errstr;

        # or

        use Passwd::Unix qw(check_sanity reset encpass passwd_file shadow_file
                                group_file backup warnings del del_user uid gid gecos
                                home shell passwd rename maxgid maxuid exists_user
                                exists_group user users users_from_shadow del_group
                                group groups groups_from_gshadow);

        user("example", encpass("my_secret"), $pu->maxuid + 1, 10,
             "My User", "/home/example", "/bin/bash" );
        die $Passwd::Unix::Alt::errstr if $Passwd::Unix::Alt::errstr;

        passwd("example",encpass("newsecret"));
        die $Passwd::Unix::Alt::errstr if $Passwd::Unix::Alt::errstr;

        foreach my $user (users()) {
            print "Username: $user\nFull Name: ", gecos($user), "\n\n";
        }

        my $uid = uid('example');

        del("example");
        die $Passwd::Unix::Alt::errstr if $Passwd::Unix::Alt::errstr;

DESCRIPTION

The Passwd::Unix module provides an abstract interface to /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow and /etc/group format files. It is inspired by Unix::PasswdFile module (that one does not handle /etc/shadow file, what is necessary in modern systems like Sun Solaris 10 or Linux).

ABOUT PASSWD::UNIX::ALT

Passwd::Unix::Alt is a fork of Strzelecki Lukasz's Passwd::Unix v0.52, which I forked to scratch some of my itches, and which I hope can be merged back to Passwd::Unix eventually. I use Passwd::Unix because, despite its shortcomings, as of mid of 2011 I think it is still the best (or perhaps the only functioning) module on CPAN to manipulate passwd and shadow entries. As a side note, I originally forked the module to create Setup::Unix::User and Setup::Unix::Group. You might want to check those two out if you need undo and dry-run capability.

Notable differences from Passwd::Unix v0.52:

• add some tests

• does not require root privileges unless necessary (useful for testing)

• report error string in $Passwd::Unix::Alt::errstr

  Instead of just returning true/false status or carping to stderr.

• add lock option

  Currently not enabled by default, needs more testing.

• does not use bzip2 for backup files

  I find compression not really necessary yet, plus bzip2 is not available in some systems.

UPDATE 20012-08-30: I created Unix::Passwd::File, a brand new module with a procedural (non-OO) interface. I thereby deem this module deprecated in favor of the new module.

The rest of the documentation is Passwd::Unix's.

ABSTRACT

Passwd::Unix provides an abstract object-oriented and function interface to standard Unix files, such as /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/group. Additionaly this module provides environment to testing new software, without using system critical files in /etc/dir.

SUBROUTINES/METHODS

new( [ param0 => 1, param1 => 0... ] )

Constructor. Possible parameters are:

passwd - path to passwd file; default /etc/passwd

shadow - path to shadow file; default /etc/shadow

group - path to group file; default /etc/group

gshadow - path to gshadow file if any; default /etc/gshadow

umask - umask for creating files; default 0022 (standard for UNIX and Linux systems)

backup - boolean; if set to 1, backup will be made; default 1

lock - boolean; if set to 1, flock() will be performed before modification; default 0

warnings - boolean; if set to 1, important warnings will be displayed; default 0

check_sanity()

This method check if environment is sane. I.e. if users in shadow and in passwd are the same. This method is invoked in constructor.

del( USERNAME0, USERNAME1... )

This method is an alias for del_user. It's for transition only.

del_user( USERNAME0, USERNAME1... )

This method will delete the list of users. It has no effect if the supplied users do not exist.

Set $Passwd::Unix::Alt::errstr on error.

del_group( GROUPNAME0, GROUPNAME1... )

This method will delete the list of groups. It has no effect if the supplied groups do not exist.

Set $Passwd::Unix::Alt::errstr on error.

encpass( PASSWORD )

This method will encrypt plain text into unix style MD5 password.

gecos( USERNAME [,GECOS] )

Read or modify a user's GECOS string (typically their full name). Returns the result of operation (1 or undef) if GECOS was specified. Otherwhise returns the GECOS.

gid( USERNAME [,GID] )

Read or modify a user's GID. Returns the result of operation (TRUE or FALSE) if GID was specified otherwhise returns the GID.

home( USERNAME [,HOMEDIR] )

Read or modify a user's home directory. Returns the result of operation (1 or undef) if HOMEDIR was specified otherwhise returns the HOMEDIR.

maxuid( )

This method returns the maximum UID in use by all users.

maxgid( )

This method returns the maximum GID in use by all groups.

passwd( USERNAME [,PASSWD] )

Read or modify a user's password. If you have a plaintext password, use the encpass method to encrypt it before passing it to this method. Returns the result of operation (1 or undef) if PASSWD was specified. Otherwhise returns the PASSWD.

rename( OLDNAME, NEWNAME )

This method changes the username for a user. If NEWNAME corresponds to an existing user, that user will be overwritten. It returns FALSE on failure and TRUE on success.

shell( USERNAME [,SHELL] )

Read or modify a user's shell. Returns the result of operation (TRUE or FALSE) if SHELL was specified otherwhise returns the SHELL.

uid( USERNAME [,UID] )

Read or modify a user's UID. Returns the result of operation (TRUE or FALSE) if UID was specified otherwhise returns the UID.

user( USERNAME [,PASSWD, UID, GID, GECOS, HOMEDIR, SHELL] )

This method can add, modify, or return information about a user. Supplied with a single username parameter, it will return a six element list consisting of (PASSWORD, UID, GID, GECOS, HOMEDIR, SHELL), or undef if no such user exists. If you supply all seven parameters, the named user will be created or modified if it already exists.

Set $Passwd::Unix::Alt::errstr on error.

group( GROUPNAME [,GID, ARRAYREF] )

This method can add, modify, or return information about a group. Supplied with a single groupname parameter, it will return a two element list consisting of (GID, ARRAYREF), where ARRAYREF is a ref to array consisting names of users in this GROUP. It will return undef and ref to empty array (undef, [ ]) if no such group exists. If you supply all three parameters, the named group will be created or modified if it already exists.

Set $Passwd::Unix::Alt::errstr on error.

users()

This method returns a list of all existing usernames.

users_from_shadow()

This method returns a list of all existing usernames in a shadow file.

groups()

This method returns a list of all existing groups.

groups_from_gshadow()

This method returns a list of all existing groups in a gshadow file.

exists_user(USERNAME)

This method checks if specified user exists. It returns TRUE or FALSE.

exists_group(GROUPNAME)

This method checks if specified group exists. It returns TRUE or FALSE.

default_umask([UMASK])

This method, if called with an argument, sets default umask for this module (not Your program!). Otherwise returns the current UMASK. Probably You don't want to change this.

passwd_file([PATH])

This method, if called with an argument, sets path to the passwd file. Otherwise returns the current PATH.

shadow_file([PATH])

This method, if called with an argument, sets path to the shadow file. Otherwise returns the current PATH.

group_file([PATH])

This method, if called with an argument, sets path to the group file. Otherwise returns the current PATH.

gshadow_file([PATH])

This method, if called with an argument, sets path to the gshadow file. Otherwise returns the current PATH.

reset()

This method sets paths to files passwd, shadow, group to the default values.

DEPENDENCIES

Struct::Compare

Crypt::PasswdMD5

INCOMPATIBILITIES

None known.

BUGS AND LIMITATIONS

None. I hope.

THANKS

Thanks to Jonas Genannt for suggestions as well as supplying relevant patch!

BIG THANKS to Lopes Victor for reporting some bugs and his exact sugesstions :-)

Thanks to Foudil BRÉTEL for some remarks, suggestions as well as supplying relevant patch!

BIG thanks to Artem Russakovskii for reporting a bug.

ORIGINAL AUTHOR

Strzelecki Lukasz <strzelec@rswsystems.com>

LICENCE AND COPYRIGHT

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

See http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html

SEE ALSO

Passwd::Unix::Functional

AUTHOR

Steven Haryanto <stevenharyanto@gmail.com>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2012 by Steven Haryanto.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.