Check if user exists

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#1 by (2 votes)

2

How can I in bash check if a user exists, but in a way that script works on multiple systems?

A limited example:

grep <username> /etc/passwd

Does not work on systems that use NIS or LDAP to manage users.

linux bash

asked by anonymous 25.03.2015 / 14:20

1 answer

score 2 · Accepted Answer

The getent command should work in this case.

getent passwd <usuario>

The getent command displays database entries supported by Service Switch libraries , which are configured in the /etc/nsswitch.conf file.

Another alternative that might work in this case is to verify that the user's ID is valid through the id ", using with -u option:

if id -u "usuario" > /dev/null 2>&1; then
        echo "Utilizador existe"
else
        echo "O utilizador especificado não existe"
fi