From: matz@... (Yukihiro Matsumoto)
Date: 2002-05-24T13:40:14+09:00
Subject: Re: require 'etc'

Hi,

In message "require 'etc'"
    on 02/05/24, Todd Holloway <todd@duckland.org> writes:

|I'd like to use require 'etc', but not on the /etc/passwd file,
|but on one I supply. Can this be done?

Use split:

  open("/path/to/passwd/file") {|line|
    name,passwd,uid,pid,gecos,home,shell = line.split
    ...
  }

|The ext/etc/etc.txt file says:
|   getpwnam(name) searches in /etc/passwd file (or equivalent database),

This "equivalent database" does mean "OS specific user entry
database".  You can not specify your own passwd file.  Although I
thought about fgetpwent(3) last name.  What a coincidence.

							matz.