### 34.8 Group Database Functions

Octave's group database functions return information in a structure with the following fields.

`name`
  The user name.
`passwd`
  The encrypted password, if available.
`gid`
  The numeric group id.
`mem`
  The members of the group.

In the descriptions of the following functions, this data structure is referred to as a grp_struct.

— Loadable Function: grp_struct = getgrent ()

> Return an entry from the group database, opening it if necessary. Once the end of the data has been reached, `getgrent` returns 0.

— Loadable Function: grp_struct = getgrgid (gid).

> Return the first entry from the group database with the group ID gid. If the group ID does not exist in the database, `getgrgid` returns 0.

— Loadable Function: grp_struct = getgrnam (name)

> Return the first entry from the group database with the group name name. If the group name does not exist in the database, `getgrname` returns 0.

— Loadable Function: setgrent ()

> Return the internal pointer to the beginning of the group database.

— Loadable Function: endgrent ()

> Close the group database.