PHP Manual: Return info about a user by username

Description

arrayfalse posix_getpwnam(string $username)

Returns an array of information about the given user.

Parameters

username: An alphanumeric username.

Return Values

On success an array with the following elements is returned, else false is returned:

**The user information array**
Element	Description
name	The name element contains the username of the user. This is a short, usually less than 16 character "handle" of the user, not the real, full name. This should be the same as the `username` parameter used when calling the function, and hence redundant.
passwd	The passwd element contains the user's password in an encrypted format. Often, for example on a system employing "shadow" passwords, an asterisk is returned instead.
uid	User ID of the user in numeric form.
gid	The group ID of the user. Use the function posix_getgrgid to resolve the group name and a list of its members.
gecos	GECOS is an obsolete term that refers to the finger information field on a Honeywell batch processing system. The field, however, lives on, and its contents have been formalized by POSIX. The field contains a comma separated list containing the user's full name, office phone, office number, and home phone number. On most systems, only the user's full name is available.
dir	This element contains the absolute path to the home directory of the user.
shell	The shell element contains the absolute path to the executable of the user's default shell.

Examples

Example #1 Example use of posix_getpwnam

<?php

$userinfo = posix_getpwnam("tom");

print_r($userinfo);
?>

The above example will output something similar to:

Array
(
    [name]    => tom
    [passwd]  => x
    [uid]     => 10000
    [gid]     => 42
    [gecos]   => "tom,,,"
    [dir]     => "/home/tom"
    [shell]   => "/bin/bash"
)

posix_getpwnam

Description

Parameters

Return Values

Examples

See Also