how to find when a user is created

[Khashru]

I want to find out when (date) a user account is created in hpux. Is there any command. I can check by user home folder creation date. but i need it to be done from command line.

[RAC_1]

If system is in trusted mode, you may be. But I don;t think such an information is stored.

/usr/lbin/getprpw "user_name"

Also look at passwd -sa command.

[Sunny Jaisinghani]

Hi,

i don't know if there is a way to know the exact date of user creation.

However you can guess the approx span in which the user got created by having a look at /etc/passwd.

if any user is added the entry for that user is appended. so by having a look at the depth of /etc/passwd file there is a chance u can guess. however it is difficult.

[Khashru]

No luck.

[Anshumali]

Unix doesn't maintain file creation date.

Though you can check the files like .profile, .kshrc, .login if they aren't modified since then or you can configure a logging through a script when you create a new user.

[Peter Godron]

Hi,
limited options, please see earlier threads:

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=518531

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1031199

[Peter Nikitka]

Hi,

you can do nothing for the past, but for future data I'll attach my script "upd_passwd_log" (includes support for /etc/shadow) which is run via a crontab entry like this on all relevant servers:
0 6,9,12,15,18,21 * * 1-5 /root/bin/upd_passwd_log

Configure the variable
PWdir
to your needs.

mfG Peter

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

> I can check by user home folder creation date...

Please, there is no such thing as a creation date in Unix. The closest you can come is the 'mtime' which represents the last *modification* timestamp. Coincidentally, at the time a file or directroy is first created its 'mtime' can be said to be its creation timestamp, but thereafter any changes modify the timestamp value. For directories, additions and deletions of files to the structure modify 'mtime', obliterating the original 'mtime' or "creation" information.

Regards!

...JRF...

[A. Clay Stephenson]

There is nothing in UNIX that will do this for you just as there is nothing that will tell you when a user was deleted/removed. If one needs to track these data then one needs to create a database and one's user add and user delete scripts need to update this database. Note that this database can be a flat file but the point is that there is no built-in facility for this task.

... and has already been mentioned UNIX has absolutely no concept of the creation date of a file. If that happens to coincide with a files mtime or ctime, it is purely accidental.