Checking for $LOGNAME on another server

[Leslie Chaim]

Hi,

Is there an easy way to identify if a given $LOGNAME or $(whoami)or $(logname), whatever exists on another server?

I am developing a distributed application in Java and for testing purposes, I need this functionality. The production version is always as ops. However, for testing, I want that anyone installing the test app should have an account on every box/server where the app is running.

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

Assuming remote shell is allowed/setup:

# remsh thehost grep username /etc/passwd

...or:

# remsh thehost finger username

Regards!

...JRF...

[Jean-Louis Phelix]

hi,

finger command would do it (see man finger). But fingerd must be enabled on the remote system which is not very secured ...

Regards.

[Jean-Louis Phelix]

to enable fingerd, uncomment the line in /etc/inetd.conf then run inetd -c.

Regards.

[Leslie Chaim]

Well, I was using pwget -n and it works fine. I guess I was looking for something fancy.

Now I am doing this:
exists=$(remsh omni pwget -n $LOGNAME)

test -n "$exists" || echo $LOGNAME is not in omni

I feel that doing the string checking is a bit awkword, nevertheless it does the job.

Here's a thought but I am not sure if this is possible, is there a way with mail/mailx/sendmail and some options where you can simply tickel the othere side and ask for if a user exists. This way the above can be done like this:

mail -option $LOGNAME@omni || echo $LOGNAME is not in omni

[Darren Prior]

Hi,

If you're going to be using pwget -n I'd suggest that you check using the error code rather than testing for a string being returned. return code is 0 for found, 1 for not found, 2 for an error as per the man page.

Otherwise a different way of approaching this is to consider something like NIS to keep account authentication across different boxes.

regards,

Darren.

[Leslie Chaim]

Yes Darren, but the error code is lost with remsh:(

[Jean-Louis Phelix]

Leslie,

I think that Darren meant something like :

[ -z $(remsh omni "pwget -n $LOGNAME >&- || echo 1" ) ] || echo $LOGNAME is not in omni

Regards