.TH qmail-getpw 8.SH NAMEqmail-getpw \- give addresses to users.SH SYNOPSIS.B qmail-getpw.I local.SH DESCRIPTIONIn.BR qmail ,each user controls a vast array of local addresses..B qmail-getpwfinds the user that controls a particular address,.IR local .It prints six pieces of information,each terminated by NUL:.IR user ;.IR uid ;.IR gid ;.IR homedir ;.IR dash ;and.IR ext .The user's account name is.IR user ;the user's uid and gid in decimal are.I uidand.IR gid ;the user's home directory is.IR homedir ;and messages to.I localwill be handled by.IR homedir\fB/.qmail\fIdashext .In case of trouble,.B qmail-getpwexits nonzero without printing anything..B WARNING:The operating system's.B getpwnamfunction, which is at the heart of.BR qmail-getpw ,is inherently unreliable:it fails to distinguish between temporary errors and nonexistent users.Future versions of.B getpwnamshould return ETXTBSY to indicate temporary errorsand ESRCH to indicate nonexistent users..SH "RULES".B qmail-getpwconsiders an account in.B /etc/passwdto be a user if(1) the account has a nonzero uid,(2) the account's home directory exists (and is visible to.BR qmail-getpw ),and(3) the account owns its home directory..B qmail-getpwignores account names containing uppercase letters..B qmail-getpwalso assumes that all account names are shorter than 32 characters..B qmail-getpwgives each usercontrol over the basic.I useraddress andall addresses of the form.IR user\fBBREAK\fIanything .When.I localis.IR user ,.I dashand.I extare both empty.When.I localis.IR user\fBBREAK\fIanything ,.I dashis a hyphen and.I extis.IR anything ..I usermay appear in any combination of uppercase and lowercase lettersat the front of.IR local .A catch-all user,.BR alias ,controls all other addresses.In this case.I extis.I localand.I dashis a hyphen.You can override all of.BR qmail-getpw 'sdecisions with the.B qmail-usersmechanism, which is reliable, highly configurable, and much faster than.BR qmail-getpw ..SH "SEE ALSO"qmail-users(5),qmail-lspawn(8)