NAME

getlogin − get login name

SYNOPSIS

char ∗getlogin()

DESCRIPTION

getlogin returns a pointer to the login name as found in /etc/utmp. It may be used in conjunction with getpwnam to locate the correct password file entry when the same userid is shared by several login names. 

If getlogin is called within a process that is not attached to a terminal, or if there is no entry in /etc/utmp for the process’s terminal, getlogin returns NULL.  A reasonable procedure for determining the login name is to first call getlogin and if it fails, to call getpwuid(getuid()).

FILES

/etc/utmp

SEE ALSO

getpwent(3), utmp(4), ttyslot(3)

DIAGNOSTICS

Returns NULL if name not found. 

BUGS

The return values point to static data whose content is overwritten by each call. 

September 02, 1992