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GETLOGIN(2)                   System Calls Manual                  GETLOGIN(2)

NAME
     getlogin, getlogin_r, setlogin - get/set login name

LIBRARY
     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS
     #include <unistd.h>

     char *
     getlogin(void);

     int
     getlogin_r(char *name, size_t len);

     int
     setlogin(const char *name);

DESCRIPTION
     The getlogin() routine returns the login name of the user associated with
     the current session, as previously set by setlogin().  The name is
     normally associated with a login shell at the time a session is created,
     and is inherited by all processes descended from the login shell.  (This
     is true even if some of those processes assume another user ID, for
     example when su(1) is used.)

     The getlogin_r() function provides the same service as getlogin(),
     however the caller must provide the buffer name with length len bytes to
     hold the result.  The buffer should be at least MAXLOGNAME bytes in
     length.

     setlogin() sets the login name of the user associated with the current
     session to name.  This call is restricted to the super-user, and is
     normally used only when a new session is being created on behalf of the
     named user (for example, at login time, or when a remote shell is
     invoked).

     NOTE: There is only one login name per session.

     It is CRITICALLY important to ensure that setlogin() is only ever called
     after the process has taken adequate steps to ensure that it is detached
     from its parent's session.  The ONLY way to do this is via the setsid()
     function.  The daemon() function calls setsid() which is an ideal way of
     detaching from a controlling terminal and forking into the background.

     In particular, neither ioctl(ttyfd, TIOCNOTTY, ...) nor setpgid(...) is
     sufficient to create a new session.

     Once a parent process has called setsid(), it is acceptable for some
     child of that process to then call setlogin(), even though it is not the
     session leader.  Beware, however, that ALL processes in the session will
     change their login name at the same time, even the parent.

     This is different from traditional UNIX privilege inheritance and as such
     can be counter-intuitive.

     Since the setlogin() routine is restricted to the super-user, it is
     assumed that (like all other privileged programs) the programmer has
     taken adequate precautions to prevent security violations.

RETURN VALUES
     If a call to getlogin() succeeds, it returns a pointer to a null-
     terminated string in a static buffer.  If the name has not been set, it
     returns NULL.

     If a call to setlogin() succeeds, a value of 0 is returned.  If
     setlogin() fails, a value of -1 is returned and an error code is placed
     in the global location errno.

     The getlogin_r() function returns zero if successful, or the error number
     upon failure.

ERRORS
     The following errors may be returned by these calls:

     [EFAULT]           The name parameter gave an invalid address.

     [EINVAL]           The name parameter pointed to a string that was too
                        long.  Login names are limited to MAXLOGNAME (from
                        <sys/param.h>) characters, currently 16.

     [EPERM]            The caller tried to set the login name and was not the
                        super-user.

     [ERANGE]           The size of the buffer is smaller than the result to
                        be returned.

SEE ALSO
     setsid(2)

STANDARDS
     The getlogin() and getlogin_r() functions conform to ISO/IEC 9945-1:1996
     ("POSIX.1").

HISTORY
     The getlogin() function first appeared in 4.4BSD.

BUGS
     Login names are limited in length by setlogin().  However, lower limits
     are placed on login names elsewhere in the system (UT_NAMESIZE in
     <utmp.h>).

     In earlier versions of the system, getlogin() failed unless the process
     was associated with a login terminal.  The current implementation (using
     setlogin()) allows getlogin to succeed even when the process has no
     controlling terminal.  In earlier versions of the system, the value
     returned by getlogin() could not be trusted without checking the user ID.
     Portable programs should probably still make this check.

NetBSD 10.99                    January 6, 2009                   NetBSD 10.99