This is libc.info, produced by makeinfo version 4.0 from libc.texinfo.

INFO-DIR-SECTION GNU libraries
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* Libc: (libc).                 C library.
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY

   This file documents the GNU C library.

   This is Edition 0.10, last updated 2001-07-06, of `The GNU C Library
Reference Manual', for Version 2.2.x.

   Copyright (C) 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002
Free Software Foundation, Inc.

   Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
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(see below), and with the Back-Cover Texts being (b) (see below).  A
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   (a) The FSF's Front-Cover Text is:

   A GNU Manual

   (b) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is:

   You have freedom to copy and modify this GNU Manual, like GNU
software.  Copies published by the Free Software Foundation raise
funds for GNU development.


File: libc.info,  Node: Lookup User,  Next: Scanning All Users,  Prev: User Data Structure,  Up: User Database

Looking Up One User
-------------------

   You can search the system user database for information about a
specific user using `getpwuid' or `getpwnam'.  These functions are
declared in `pwd.h'.

 - Function: struct passwd * getpwuid (uid_t UID)
     This function returns a pointer to a statically-allocated structure
     containing information about the user whose user ID is UID.  This
     structure may be overwritten on subsequent calls to `getpwuid'.

     A null pointer value indicates there is no user in the data base
     with user ID UID.

 - Function: int getpwuid_r (uid_t UID, struct passwd *RESULT_BUF, char
          *BUFFER, size_t BUFLEN, struct passwd **RESULT)
     This function is similar to `getpwuid' in that it returns
     information about the user whose user ID is UID.  However, it
     fills the user supplied structure pointed to by RESULT_BUF with
     the information instead of using a static buffer.  The first
     BUFLEN bytes of the additional buffer pointed to by BUFFER are
     used to contain additional information, normally strings which are
     pointed to by the elements of the result structure.

     If a user with ID UID is found, the pointer returned in RESULT
     points to the record which contains the wanted data (i.e., RESULT
     contains the value RESULT_BUF).  If no user is found or if an
     error occurred, the pointer returned in RESULT is a null pointer.
     The function returns zero or an error code.  If the buffer BUFFER
     is too small to contain all the needed information, the error code
     `ERANGE' is returned and ERRNO is set to `ERANGE'.

 - Function: struct passwd * getpwnam (const char *NAME)
     This function returns a pointer to a statically-allocated structure
     containing information about the user whose user name is NAME.
     This structure may be overwritten on subsequent calls to
     `getpwnam'.

     A null pointer return indicates there is no user named NAME.

 - Function: int getpwnam_r (const char *NAME, struct passwd
          *RESULT_BUF, char *BUFFER, size_t BUFLEN, struct passwd
          **RESULT)
     This function is similar to `getpwnam' in that is returns
     information about the user whose user name is NAME.  However, like
     `getpwuid_r', it fills the user supplied buffers in RESULT_BUF and
     BUFFER with the information instead of using a static buffer.

     The return values are the same as for `getpwuid_r'.


File: libc.info,  Node: Scanning All Users,  Next: Writing a User Entry,  Prev: Lookup User,  Up: User Database

Scanning the List of All Users
------------------------------

   This section explains how a program can read the list of all users in
the system, one user at a time.  The functions described here are
declared in `pwd.h'.

   You can use the `fgetpwent' function to read user entries from a
particular file.

 - Function: struct passwd * fgetpwent (FILE *STREAM)
     This function reads the next user entry from STREAM and returns a
     pointer to the entry.  The structure is statically allocated and is
     rewritten on subsequent calls to `fgetpwent'.  You must copy the
     contents of the structure if you wish to save the information.

     The stream must correspond to a file in the same format as the
     standard password database file.

 - Function: int fgetpwent_r (FILE *STREAM, struct passwd *RESULT_BUF,
          char *BUFFER, size_t BUFLEN, struct passwd **RESULT)
     This function is similar to `fgetpwent' in that it reads the next
     user entry from STREAM.  But the result is returned in the
     structure pointed to by RESULT_BUF.  The first BUFLEN bytes of the
     additional buffer pointed to by BUFFER are used to contain
     additional information, normally strings which are pointed to by
     the elements of the result structure.

     The stream must correspond to a file in the same format as the
     standard password database file.

     If the function returns zero RESULT points to the structure with
     the wanted data (normally this is in RESULT_BUF).  If errors
     occurred the return value is nonzero and RESULT contains a null
     pointer.

   The way to scan all the entries in the user database is with
`setpwent', `getpwent', and `endpwent'.

 - Function: void setpwent (void)
     This function initializes a stream which `getpwent' and
     `getpwent_r' use to read the user database.

 - Function: struct passwd * getpwent (void)
     The `getpwent' function reads the next entry from the stream
     initialized by `setpwent'.  It returns a pointer to the entry.  The
     structure is statically allocated and is rewritten on subsequent
     calls to `getpwent'.  You must copy the contents of the structure
     if you wish to save the information.

     A null pointer is returned when no more entries are available.

 - Function: int getpwent_r (struct passwd *RESULT_BUF, char *BUFFER,
          int BUFLEN, struct passwd **RESULT)
     This function is similar to `getpwent' in that it returns the next
     entry from the stream initialized by `setpwent'.  Like
     `fgetpwent_r', it uses the user-supplied buffers in RESULT_BUF and
     BUFFER to return the information requested.

     The return values are the same as for `fgetpwent_r'.


 - Function: void endpwent (void)
     This function closes the internal stream used by `getpwent' or
     `getpwent_r'.


File: libc.info,  Node: Writing a User Entry,  Prev: Scanning All Users,  Up: User Database

Writing a User Entry
--------------------

 - Function: int putpwent (const struct passwd *P, FILE *STREAM)
     This function writes the user entry `*P' to the stream STREAM, in
     the format used for the standard user database file.  The return
     value is zero on success and nonzero on failure.

     This function exists for compatibility with SVID.  We recommend
     that you avoid using it, because it makes sense only on the
     assumption that the `struct passwd' structure has no members
     except the standard ones; on a system which merges the traditional
     Unix data base with other extended information about users, adding
     an entry using this function would inevitably leave out much of
     the important information.

     The function `putpwent' is declared in `pwd.h'.


File: libc.info,  Node: Group Database,  Next: Database Example,  Prev: User Database,  Up: Users and Groups

Group Database
==============

   This section describes how to search and scan the database of
registered groups.  The database itself is kept in the file
`/etc/group' on most systems, but on some systems a special network
service provides access to it.

* Menu:

* Group Data Structure::        What each group record contains.
* Lookup Group::                How to look for a particular group.
* Scanning All Groups::         Scanning the list of all groups.


File: libc.info,  Node: Group Data Structure,  Next: Lookup Group,  Up: Group Database

The Data Structure for a Group
------------------------------

   The functions and data structures for accessing the system group
database are declared in the header file `grp.h'.

 - Data Type: struct group
     The `group' structure is used to hold information about an entry in
     the system group database.  It has at least the following members:

    `char *gr_name'
          The name of the group.

    `gid_t gr_gid'
          The group ID of the group.

    `char **gr_mem'
          A vector of pointers to the names of users in the group.
          Each user name is a null-terminated string, and the vector
          itself is terminated by a null pointer.


File: libc.info,  Node: Lookup Group,  Next: Scanning All Groups,  Prev: Group Data Structure,  Up: Group Database

Looking Up One Group
--------------------

   You can search the group database for information about a specific
group using `getgrgid' or `getgrnam'.  These functions are declared in
`grp.h'.

 - Function: struct group * getgrgid (gid_t GID)
     This function returns a pointer to a statically-allocated structure
     containing information about the group whose group ID is GID.
     This structure may be overwritten by subsequent calls to
     `getgrgid'.

     A null pointer indicates there is no group with ID GID.

 - Function: int getgrgid_r (gid_t GID, struct group *RESULT_BUF, char
          *BUFFER, size_t BUFLEN, struct group **RESULT)
     This function is similar to `getgrgid' in that it returns
     information about the group whose group ID is GID.  However, it
     fills the user supplied structure pointed to by RESULT_BUF with
     the information instead of using a static buffer.  The first
     BUFLEN bytes of the additional buffer pointed to by BUFFER are
     used to contain additional information, normally strings which are
     pointed to by the elements of the result structure.

     If a group with ID GID is found, the pointer returned in RESULT
     points to the record which contains the wanted data (i.e., RESULT
     contains the value RESULT_BUF).  If no group is found or if an
     error occurred, the pointer returned in RESULT is a null pointer.
     The function returns zero or an error code.  If the buffer BUFFER
     is too small to contain all the needed information, the error code
     `ERANGE' is returned and ERRNO is set to `ERANGE'.

 - Function: struct group * getgrnam (const char *NAME)
     This function returns a pointer to a statically-allocated structure
     containing information about the group whose group name is NAME.
     This structure may be overwritten by subsequent calls to
     `getgrnam'.

     A null pointer indicates there is no group named NAME.

 - Function: int getgrnam_r (const char *NAME, struct group
          *RESULT_BUF, char *BUFFER, size_t BUFLEN, struct group
          **RESULT)
     This function is similar to `getgrnam' in that is returns
     information about the group whose group name is NAME.  Like
     `getgrgid_r', it uses the user supplied buffers in RESULT_BUF and
     BUFFER, not a static buffer.

     The return values are the same as for `getgrgid_r' `ERANGE'.


File: libc.info,  Node: Scanning All Groups,  Prev: Lookup Group,  Up: Group Database

Scanning the List of All Groups
-------------------------------

   This section explains how a program can read the list of all groups
in the system, one group at a time.  The functions described here are
declared in `grp.h'.

   You can use the `fgetgrent' function to read group entries from a
particular file.

 - Function: struct group * fgetgrent (FILE *STREAM)
     The `fgetgrent' function reads the next entry from STREAM.  It
     returns a pointer to the entry.  The structure is statically
     allocated and is overwritten on subsequent calls to `fgetgrent'.
     You must copy the contents of the structure if you wish to save the
     information.

     The stream must correspond to a file in the same format as the
     standard group database file.

 - Function: int fgetgrent_r (FILE *STREAM, struct group *RESULT_BUF,
          char *BUFFER, size_t BUFLEN, struct group **RESULT)
     This function is similar to `fgetgrent' in that it reads the next
     user entry from STREAM.  But the result is returned in the
     structure pointed to by RESULT_BUF.  The first BUFLEN bytes of the
     additional buffer pointed to by BUFFER are used to contain
     additional information, normally strings which are pointed to by
     the elements of the result structure.

     This stream must correspond to a file in the same format as the
     standard group database file.

     If the function returns zero RESULT points to the structure with
     the wanted data (normally this is in RESULT_BUF).  If errors
     occurred the return value is non-zero and RESULT contains a null
     pointer.

   The way to scan all the entries in the group database is with
`setgrent', `getgrent', and `endgrent'.

 - Function: void setgrent (void)
     This function initializes a stream for reading from the group data
     base.  You use this stream by calling `getgrent' or `getgrent_r'.

 - Function: struct group * getgrent (void)
     The `getgrent' function reads the next entry from the stream
     initialized by `setgrent'.  It returns a pointer to the entry.  The
     structure is statically allocated and is overwritten on subsequent
     calls to `getgrent'.  You must copy the contents of the structure
     if you wish to save the information.

 - Function: int getgrent_r (struct group *RESULT_BUF, char *BUFFER,
          size_t BUFLEN, struct group **RESULT)
     This function is similar to `getgrent' in that it returns the next
     entry from the stream initialized by `setgrent'.  Like
     `fgetgrent_r', it places the result in user-supplied buffers
     pointed to RESULT_BUF and BUFFER.

     If the function returns zero RESULT contains a pointer to the data
     (normally equal to RESULT_BUF).  If errors occurred the return
     value is non-zero and RESULT contains a null pointer.

 - Function: void endgrent (void)
     This function closes the internal stream used by `getgrent' or
     `getgrent_r'.


File: libc.info,  Node: Database Example,  Next: Netgroup Database,  Prev: Group Database,  Up: Users and Groups

User and Group Database Example
===============================

   Here is an example program showing the use of the system database
inquiry functions.  The program prints some information about the user
running the program.

     #include <grp.h>
     #include <pwd.h>
     #include <sys/types.h>
     #include <unistd.h>
     #include <stdlib.h>
     
     int
     main (void)
     {
       uid_t me;
       struct passwd *my_passwd;
       struct group *my_group;
       char **members;
     
       /* Get information about the user ID. */
       me = getuid ();
       my_passwd = getpwuid (me);
       if (!my_passwd)
         {
           printf ("Couldn't find out about user %d.\n", (int) me);
           exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
         }
     
       /* Print the information. */
       printf ("I am %s.\n", my_passwd->pw_gecos);
       printf ("My login name is %s.\n", my_passwd->pw_name);
       printf ("My uid is %d.\n", (int) (my_passwd->pw_uid));
       printf ("My home directory is %s.\n", my_passwd->pw_dir);
       printf ("My default shell is %s.\n", my_passwd->pw_shell);
     
       /* Get information about the default group ID. */
       my_group = getgrgid (my_passwd->pw_gid);
       if (!my_group)
         {
           printf ("Couldn't find out about group %d.\n",
                   (int) my_passwd->pw_gid);
           exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
         }
     
       /* Print the information. */
       printf ("My default group is %s (%d).\n",
               my_group->gr_name, (int) (my_passwd->pw_gid));
       printf ("The members of this group are:\n");
       members = my_group->gr_mem;
       while (*members)
         {
           printf ("  %s\n", *(members));
           members++;
         }
     
       return EXIT_SUCCESS;
     }

   Here is some output from this program:

     I am Throckmorton Snurd.
     My login name is snurd.
     My uid is 31093.
     My home directory is /home/fsg/snurd.
     My default shell is /bin/sh.
     My default group is guest (12).
     The members of this group are:
       friedman
       tami


File: libc.info,  Node: Netgroup Database,  Prev: Database Example,  Up: Users and Groups

Netgroup Database
=================

* Menu:

* Netgroup Data::                  Data in the Netgroup database and where
                                   it comes from.
* Lookup Netgroup::                How to look for a particular netgroup.
* Netgroup Membership::            How to test for netgroup membership.


File: libc.info,  Node: Netgroup Data,  Next: Lookup Netgroup,  Up: Netgroup Database

Netgroup Data
-------------

   Sometimes it is useful to group users according to other criteria
(*note Group Database::).  E.g., it is useful to associate a certain
group of users with a certain machine.  On the other hand grouping of
host names is not supported so far.

   In Sun Microsystems SunOS appeared a new kind of database, the
netgroup database.  It allows grouping hosts, users, and domains
freely, giving them individual names.  To be more concrete, a netgroup
is a list of triples consisting of a host name, a user name, and a
domain name where any of the entries can be a wildcard entry matching
all inputs.  A last possibility is that names of other netgroups can
also be given in the list specifying a netgroup.  So one can construct
arbitrary hierarchies without loops.

   Sun's implementation allows netgroups only for the `nis' or
`nisplus' service, *note Services in the NSS configuration::.  The
implementation in the GNU C library has no such restriction.  An entry
in either of the input services must have the following form:

     GROUPNAME ( GROUPNAME | `('HOSTNAME`,'USERNAME`,'`domainname'`)' )+

   Any of the fields in the triple can be empty which means anything
matches.  While describing the functions we will see that the opposite
case is useful as well.  I.e., there may be entries which will not
match any input.  For entries like this, a name consisting of the single
character `-' shall be used.


File: libc.info,  Node: Lookup Netgroup,  Next: Netgroup Membership,  Prev: Netgroup Data,  Up: Netgroup Database

Looking up one Netgroup
-----------------------

   The lookup functions for netgroups are a bit different to all other
system database handling functions.  Since a single netgroup can contain
many entries a two-step process is needed.  First a single netgroup is
selected and then one can iterate over all entries in this netgroup.
These functions are declared in `netdb.h'.

 - Function: int setnetgrent (const char *NETGROUP)
     A call to this function initializes the internal state of the
     library to allow following calls of the `getnetgrent' to iterate
     over all entries in the netgroup with name NETGROUP.

     When the call is successful (i.e., when a netgroup with this name
     exists) the return value is `1'.  When the return value is `0' no
     netgroup of this name is known or some other error occurred.

   It is important to remember that there is only one single state for
iterating the netgroups.  Even if the programmer uses the
`getnetgrent_r' function the result is not really reentrant since
always only one single netgroup at a time can be processed.  If the
program needs to process more than one netgroup simultaneously she must
protect this by using external locking.  This problem was introduced in
the original netgroups implementation in SunOS and since we must stay
compatible it is not possible to change this.

   Some other functions also use the netgroups state.  Currently these
are the `innetgr' function and parts of the implementation of the
`compat' service part of the NSS implementation.

 - Function: int getnetgrent (char **HOSTP, char **USERP, char
          **DOMAINP)
     This function returns the next unprocessed entry of the currently
     selected netgroup.  The string pointers, in which addresses are
     passed in the arguments HOSTP, USERP, and DOMAINP, will contain
     after a successful call pointers to appropriate strings.  If the
     string in the next entry is empty the pointer has the value `NULL'.
     The returned string pointers are only valid if none of the netgroup
     related functions are called.

     The return value is `1' if the next entry was successfully read.  A
     value of `0' means no further entries exist or internal errors
     occurred.

 - Function: int getnetgrent_r (char **HOSTP, char **USERP, char
          **DOMAINP, char *BUFFER, int BUFLEN)
     This function is similar to `getnetgrent' with only one exception:
     the strings the three string pointers HOSTP, USERP, and DOMAINP
     point to, are placed in the buffer of BUFLEN bytes starting at
     BUFFER.  This means the returned values are valid even after other
     netgroup related functions are called.

     The return value is `1' if the next entry was successfully read and
     the buffer contains enough room to place the strings in it.  `0' is
     returned in case no more entries are found, the buffer is too
     small, or internal errors occurred.

     This function is a GNU extension.  The original implementation in
     the SunOS libc does not provide this function.

 - Function: void endnetgrent (void)
     This function frees all buffers which were allocated to process
     the last selected netgroup.  As a result all string pointers
     returned by calls to `getnetgrent' are invalid afterwards.


File: libc.info,  Node: Netgroup Membership,  Prev: Lookup Netgroup,  Up: Netgroup Database

Testing for Netgroup Membership
-------------------------------

   It is often not necessary to scan the whole netgroup since often the
only interesting question is whether a given entry is part of the
selected netgroup.

 - Function: int innetgr (const char *NETGROUP, const char *HOST, const
          char *USER, const char *DOMAIN)
     This function tests whether the triple specified by the parameters
     HOSTP, USERP, and DOMAINP is part of the netgroup NETGROUP.  Using
     this function has the advantage that

       1. no other netgroup function can use the global netgroup state
          since internal locking is used and

       2. the function is implemented more efficiently than successive
          calls to the other `set'/`get'/`endnetgrent' functions.

     Any of the pointers HOSTP, USERP, and DOMAINP can be `NULL' which
     means any value is accepted in this position.  This is also true
     for the name `-' which should not match any other string otherwise.

     The return value is `1' if an entry matching the given triple is
     found in the netgroup.  The return value is `0' if the netgroup
     itself is not found, the netgroup does not contain the triple or
     internal errors occurred.


File: libc.info,  Node: System Management,  Next: System Configuration,  Prev: Users and Groups,  Up: Top

System Management
*****************

   This chapter describes facilities for controlling the system that
underlies a process (including the operating system and hardware) and
for getting information about it.  Anyone can generally use the
informational facilities, but usually only a properly privileged process
can make changes.

* Menu:

* Host Identification::         Determining the name of the machine.
* Platform Type::               Determining operating system and basic
                                  machine type
* Filesystem Handling::         Controlling/querying mounts
* System Parameters::           Getting and setting various system parameters

   To get information on parameters of the system that are built into
the system, such as the maximum length of a filename, *Note System
Configuration::.


File: libc.info,  Node: Host Identification,  Next: Platform Type,  Up: System Management

Host Identification
===================

   This section explains how to identify the particular system on which
your program is running.  First, let's review the various ways computer
systems are named, which is a little complicated because of the history
of the development of the Internet.

   Every Unix system (also known as a host) has a host name, whether
it's connected to a network or not.  In its simplest form, as used
before computer networks were an issue, it's just a word like `chicken'.

   But any system attached to the Internet or any network like it
conforms to a more rigorous naming convention as part of the Domain
Name System (DNS).  In DNS, every host name is composed of two parts:

  1. hostname

  2. domain name

   You will note that "hostname" looks a lot like "host name", but is
not the same thing, and that people often incorrectly refer to entire
host names as "domain names."

   In DNS, the full host name is properly called the FQDN (Fully
Qualified Domain Name) and consists of the hostname, then a period,
then the domain name.  The domain name itself usually has multiple
components separated by periods.  So for example, a system's hostname
may be `chicken' and its domain name might be `ai.mit.edu', so its FQDN
(which is its host name) is `chicken.ai.mit.edu'.

   Adding to the confusion, though, is that DNS is not the only name
space in which a computer needs to be known.  Another name space is the
NIS (aka YP) name space.  For NIS purposes, there is another domain
name, which is called the NIS domain name or the YP domain name.  It
need not have anything to do with the DNS domain name.

   Confusing things even more is the fact that in DNS, it is possible
for multiple FQDNs to refer to the same system.  However, there is
always exactly one of them that is the true host name, and it is called
the canonical FQDN.

   In some contexts, the host name is called a "node name."

   For more information on DNS host naming, *Note Host Names::.

   Prototypes for these functions appear in `unistd.h'.

   The programs `hostname', `hostid', and `domainname' work by calling
these functions.

 - Function: int gethostname (char *NAME, size_t SIZE)
     This function returns the host name of the system on which it is
     called, in the array NAME.  The SIZE argument specifies the size of
     this array, in bytes.  Note that this is _not_ the DNS hostname.
     If the system participates in DNS, this is the FQDN (see above).

     The return value is `0' on success and `-1' on failure.  In the
     GNU C library, `gethostname' fails if SIZE is not large enough;
     then you can try again with a larger array.  The following `errno'
     error condition is defined for this function:

    `ENAMETOOLONG'
          The SIZE argument is less than the size of the host name plus
          one.

     On some systems, there is a symbol for the maximum possible host
     name length: `MAXHOSTNAMELEN'.  It is defined in `sys/param.h'.
     But you can't count on this to exist, so it is cleaner to handle
     failure and try again.

     `gethostname' stores the beginning of the host name in NAME even
     if the host name won't entirely fit.  For some purposes, a
     truncated host name is good enough.  If it is, you can ignore the
     error code.

 - Function: int sethostname (const char *NAME, size_t LENGTH)
     The `sethostname' function sets the host name of the system that
     calls it to NAME, a string with length LENGTH.  Only privileged
     processes are permitted to do this.

     Usually `sethostname' gets called just once, at system boot time.
     Often, the program that calls it sets it to the value it finds in
     the file `/etc/hostname'.

     Be sure to set the host name to the full host name, not just the
     DNS hostname (see above).

     The return value is `0' on success and `-1' on failure.  The
     following `errno' error condition is defined for this function:

    `EPERM'
          This process cannot set the host name because it is not
          privileged.

 - Function: int getdomainnname (char *NAME, size_t LENGTH)
     `getdomainname' returns the NIS (aka YP) domain name of the system
     on which it is called.  Note that this is not the more popular DNS
     domain name.  Get that with `gethostname'.

     The specifics of this function are analogous to `gethostname',
     above.


 - Function: int setdomainname (const char *NAME, size_t LENGTH)
     `getdomainname' sets the NIS (aka YP) domain name of the system on
     which it is called.  Note that this is not the more popular DNS
     domain name.  Set that with `sethostname'.

     The specifics of this function are analogous to `sethostname',
     above.


 - Function: long int gethostid (void)
     This function returns the "host ID" of the machine the program is
     running on.  By convention, this is usually the primary Internet
     IP address of that machine, converted to a `long int'.  However,
     on some systems it is a meaningless but unique number which is
     hard-coded for each machine.

     This is not widely used.  It arose in BSD 4.2, but was dropped in
     BSD 4.4.  It is not required by POSIX.

     The proper way to query the IP address is to use `gethostbyname'
     on the results of `gethostname'.  For more information on IP
     addresses, *Note Host Addresses::.

 - Function: int sethostid (long int ID)
     The `sethostid' function sets the "host ID" of the host machine to
     ID.  Only privileged processes are permitted to do this.  Usually
     it happens just once, at system boot time.

     The proper way to establish the primary IP address of a system is
     to configure the IP address resolver to associate that IP address
     with the system's host name as returned by `gethostname'.  For
     example, put a record for the system in `/etc/hosts'.

     See `gethostid' above for more information on host ids.

     The return value is `0' on success and `-1' on failure.  The
     following `errno' error conditions are defined for this function:

    `EPERM'
          This process cannot set the host name because it is not
          privileged.

    `ENOSYS'
          The operating system does not support setting the host ID.
          On some systems, the host ID is a meaningless but unique
          number hard-coded for each machine.


File: libc.info,  Node: Platform Type,  Next: Filesystem Handling,  Prev: Host Identification,  Up: System Management

Platform Type Identification
============================

   You can use the `uname' function to find out some information about
the type of computer your program is running on.  This function and the
associated data type are declared in the header file `sys/utsname.h'.

   As a bonus, `uname' also gives some information identifying the
particular system your program is running on.  This is the same
information which you can get with functions targetted to this purpose
described in *Note Host Identification::.

 - Data Type: struct utsname
     The `utsname' structure is used to hold information returned by
     the `uname' function.  It has the following members:

    `char sysname[]'
          This is the name of the operating system in use.

    `char release[]'
          This is the current release level of the operating system
          implementation.

    `char version[]'
          This is the current version level within the release of the
          operating system.

    `char machine[]'
          This is a description of the type of hardware that is in use.

          Some systems provide a mechanism to interrogate the kernel
          directly for this information.  On systems without such a
          mechanism, the GNU C library fills in this field based on the
          configuration name that was specified when building and
          installing the library.

          GNU uses a three-part name to describe a system
          configuration; the three parts are CPU, MANUFACTURER and
          SYSTEM-TYPE, and they are separated with dashes.  Any
          possible combination of three names is potentially
          meaningful, but most such combinations are meaningless in
          practice and even the meaningful ones are not necessarily
          supported by any particular GNU program.

          Since the value in `machine' is supposed to describe just the
          hardware, it consists of the first two parts of the
          configuration name: `CPU-MANUFACTURER'.  For example, it
          might be one of these:

               `"sparc-sun"', `"i386-ANYTHING"', `"m68k-hp"',
               `"m68k-sony"', `"m68k-sun"', `"mips-dec"'

    `char nodename[]'
          This is the host name of this particular computer.  In the
          GNU C library, the value is the same as that returned by
          `gethostname'; see *Note Host Identification::.

          gethostname() is implemented with a call to uname().

    `char domainname[]'
          This is the NIS or YP domain name.  It is the same value
          returned by `getdomainname'; see *Note Host Identification::.
          This element is a relatively recent invention and use of it
          is not as portable as use of the rest of the structure.


 - Function: int uname (struct utsname *INFO)
     The `uname' function fills in the structure pointed to by INFO
     with information about the operating system and host machine.  A
     non-negative value indicates that the data was successfully stored.

     `-1' as the value indicates an error.  The only error possible is
     `EFAULT', which we normally don't mention as it is always a
     possibility.


File: libc.info,  Node: Filesystem Handling,  Next: System Parameters,  Prev: Platform Type,  Up: System Management

Controlling and Querying Mounts
===============================

   All files are in filesystems, and before you can access any file, its
filesystem must be mounted.  Because of Unix's concept of _Everything
is a file_, mounting of filesystems is central to doing almost
anything.  This section explains how to find out what filesystems are
currently mounted and what filesystems are available for mounting, and
how to change what is mounted.

   The classic filesystem is the contents of a disk drive.  The concept
is considerably more abstract, though, and lots of things other than
disk drives can be mounted.

   Some block devices don't correspond to traditional devices like disk
drives.  For example, a loop device is a block device whose driver uses
a regular file in another filesystem as its medium.  So if that regular
file contains appropriate data for a filesystem, you can by mounting the
loop device essentially mount a regular file.

   Some filesystems aren't based on a device of any kind.  The "proc"
filesystem, for example, contains files whose data is made up by the
filesystem driver on the fly whenever you ask for it.  And when you
write to it, the data you write causes changes in the system.  No data
gets stored.

* Menu:

* Mount Information::           What is or could be mounted?
* Mount-Unmount-Remount::       Controlling what is mounted and how


File: libc.info,  Node: Mount Information,  Next: Mount-Unmount-Remount,  Up: Filesystem Handling

Mount Information
-----------------

   For some programs it is desirable and necessary to access information
about whether a certain filesystem is mounted and, if it is, where, or
simply to get lists of all the available filesystems.  The GNU libc
provides some functions to retrieve this information portably.

   Traditionally Unix systems have a file named `/etc/fstab' which
describes all possibly mounted filesystems.  The `mount' program uses
this file to mount at startup time of the system all the necessary
filesystems.  The information about all the filesystems actually mounted
is normally kept in a file named `/etc/mtab'.  Both files share the
same syntax and it is crucial that this syntax is followed all the
time.  Therefore it is best to never directly write the files.  The
functions described in this section can do this and they also provide
the functionality to convert the external textual representation to the
internal representation.

   Note that the `fstab' and `mtab' files are maintained on a system by
_convention_.  It is possible for the files not to exist or not to be
consistent with what is really mounted or available to mount, if the
system's administration policy allows it.  But programs that mount and
unmount filesystems typically maintain and use these files as described
herein.

   The filenames given above should never be used directly.  The
portable way to handle these file is to use the macros `_PATH_FSTAB',
defined in `fstab.h' and `_PATH_MNTTAB', defined in `mntent.h',
respectively.  There are also two alternate macro names `FSTAB' and
`_PATH_MOUNTED' defined but both names are deprecated and kept only for
backward compatibility.  The two former names should always be used.

* Menu:

* fstab::                       The `fstab' file
* mtab::                        The `mtab' file
* Other Mount Information::     Other (non-libc) sources of mount information


File: libc.info,  Node: fstab,  Next: mtab,  Up: Mount Information

The `fstab' file
................

   The internal representation for entries of the file is
`struct fstab', defined in `fstab.h'.

 - Data Type: struct fstab
     This structure is used with the `getfsent', `getfsspec', and
     `getfsfile' functions.

    `char *fs_spec'
          This element describes the device from which the filesystem
          is mounted.  Normally this is the name of a special device,
          such as a hard disk partition, but it could also be a more or
          less generic string.  For "NFS" it would be a hostname and
          directory name combination.

          Even though the element is not declared `const' it shouldn't
          be modified.  The missing `const' has historic reasons, since
          this function predates ISO C.  The same is true for the other
          string elements of this structure.

    `char *fs_file'
          This describes the mount point on the local system.  I.e.,
          accessing any file in this filesystem has implicitly or
          explicitly this string as a prefix.

    `char *fs_vfstype'
          This is the type of the filesystem.  Depending on what the
          underlying kernel understands it can be any string.

    `char *fs_mntops'
          This is a string containing options passed to the kernel with
          the `mount' call.  Again, this can be almost anything.  There
          can be more than one option, separated from the others by a
          comma.  Each option consists of a name and an optional value
          part, introduced by an `=' character.

          If the value of this element must be processed it should
          ideally be done using the `getsubopt' function; see *Note
          Suboptions::.

    `const char *fs_type'
          This name is poorly chosen.  This element points to a string
          (possibly in the `fs_mntops' string) which describes the
          modes with which the filesystem is mounted.  `fstab' defines
          five macros to describe the possible values:

         `FSTAB_RW'
               The filesystems gets mounted with read and write enabled.

         `FSTAB_RQ'
               The filesystems gets mounted with read and write
               enabled.  Write access is restricted by quotas.

         `FSTAB_RO'
               The filesystem gets mounted read-only.

         `FSTAB_SW'
               This is not a real filesystem, it is a swap device.

         `FSTAB_XX'
               This entry from the `fstab' file is totally ignored.

          Testing for equality with these value must happen using
          `strcmp' since these are all strings.  Comparing the pointer
          will probably always fail.

    `int fs_freq'
          This element describes the dump frequency in days.

    `int fs_passno'
          This element describes the pass number on parallel dumps.  It
          is closely related to the `dump' utility used on Unix systems.

   To read the entire content of the of the `fstab' file the GNU libc
contains a set of three functions which are designed in the usual way.

 - Function: int setfsent (void)
     This function makes sure that the internal read pointer for the
     `fstab' file is at the beginning of the file.  This is done by
     either opening the file or resetting the read pointer.

     Since the file handle is internal to the libc this function is not
     thread-safe.

     This function returns a non-zero value if the operation was
     successful and the `getfs*' functions can be used to read the
     entries of the file.

 - Function: void endfsent (void)
     This function makes sure that all resources acquired by a prior
     call to `setfsent' (explicitly or implicitly by calling
     `getfsent') are freed.

 - Function: struct fstab * getfsent (void)
     This function returns the next entry of the `fstab' file.  If this
     is the first call to any of the functions handling `fstab' since
     program start or the last call of `endfsent', the file will be
     opened.

     The function returns a pointer to a variable of type `struct
     fstab'.  This variable is shared by all threads and therefore this
     function is not thread-safe.  If an error occurred `getfsent'
     returns a `NULL' pointer.

 - Function: struct fstab * getfsspec (const char *NAME)
     This function returns the next entry of the `fstab' file which has
     a string equal to NAME pointed to by the `fs_spec' element.  Since
     there is normally exactly one entry for each special device it
     makes no sense to call this function more than once for the same
     argument.  If this is the first call to any of the functions
     handling `fstab' since program start or the last call of
     `endfsent', the file will be opened.

     The function returns a pointer to a variable of type `struct
     fstab'.  This variable is shared by all threads and therefore this
     function is not thread-safe.  If an error occurred `getfsent'
     returns a `NULL' pointer.

 - Function: struct fstab * getfsfile (const char *NAME)
     This function returns the next entry of the `fstab' file which has
     a string equal to NAME pointed to by the `fs_file' element.  Since
     there is normally exactly one entry for each mount point it makes
     no sense to call this function more than once for the same
     argument.  If this is the first call to any of the functions
     handling `fstab' since program start or the last call of
     `endfsent', the file will be opened.

     The function returns a pointer to a variable of type `struct
     fstab'.  This variable is shared by all threads and therefore this
     function is not thread-safe.  If an error occurred `getfsent'
     returns a `NULL' pointer.

