Useradd script

[mtfahey]

I need to add about 50 users and would like to do it with a shell script. These users are on other servers. I need to keep their UID the same on all servers. They can all have the same password and force them to change it on log in. HP-UX 11.23, korn shell. Points to be awarded!

[spex]

1) Where are you pulling the list of users/UIDs from (e.g. multiple copies of /etc/passwd on different servers, a single textfile, etc.)?
2) Is it safe to assume that a user's UID is unique?

[mtfahey]

I'm pulling the information from /etc/passwd on the master server. All the UIDs are unique.

[mtfahey]

Just to add -> I would like to create a text file from the master server and use the information from it to create the users on another server.

[Peter Nikitka · Accepted solution]

Hi,

first make sure, that no new UID is already present in /etc/passwd of the new server.
Now extract the lines of the requested users from the original passwd to a file e.g. pw2add.
If the HOME will be different, modify pw2add.

Having transformed the file to the new system, it depends on whether you use plain passwd authentication or the tcb (trusted system).
For plain passwd this is enough:
cp /etc/passwd /etc/passwd.1
cat pw2add >>/etc/passwd
awk -F: '{print $3,$4,$6}' pw2add |
while read uid gid dir
do
mkdir -p $dir && chown $uid:$gid $dir
done

If your system is trusted, let us know.
Just appending to /etc/passwd is not enough in that case.

mfG Peter

[mtfahey]

To extract the users I need from /etc/passwd I was going to use the following command:

cat /etc/passwd |awk -F":" '$3 >= 1100 && $3 <= 2999 {print $1 ":" $2 ":" $3 ":"$4 ":" $5 ":" $6 ":" $7}' > pw2add

[Peter Nikitka]

Hi,

the command you want to use is possible ...
>> cat /etc/passwd |awk -F":" '$3 >= 1100 && $3 <= 2999 {print $1 ":" $2 ":" $3 ":"$4 ":" $5 ":" $6 ":" $7}' > pw2add
<<
... but I want to add some comments:

- No need for the 'cat' - awk can open files by itself:
awk -F":" '$3 >= 1100 && $3 <= 2999 {print $1 ":" $2 ":" $3 ":"$4 ":" $5 ":" $6 ":" $7}' /etc/passwd >pw2add
- Having exactly seven fields in the input file, there is no need to numerate the all explictly - the action can be simplified to
... {print $0} ...
wjich is identical to
... {print} ...
which is the default, so this is equivalent:
awk -F: '$3 >= 1100 && $3 <= 2999' /etc/passwd >pw2add

mfG Peter

[mtfahey]

Yeah, I just read that in the book I just bought. Thank you very much!

[mtfahey]

Thank you all for assistance.

[mtfahey]

thanx