[SOLVED] Bash command to find out if user exists

brgsousa · 01-20-2011, 12:44 PM

Hi!
Is there any linux command to find out if a user exists?
It should something like this: if user exists it returns 1, if he doesn't it returns 0.

regards,

catkin · 01-20-2011, 01:06 PM

Assuming the system is using /etc/passwd:

Code:

username=androcles
grep -q "^$username:" /etc/passwd

crts · 01-20-2011, 01:09 PM

How about

Code:

grep -q '^username:' /etc/passwd

Since it won't return anything you could check the exit status.
Alternatively you could use

Code:

grep -c '^username:' /etc/passwd

which will return the number of matches. Since a username is supposed to be unique it will return 1 on success and 0 if the user is not found.

brgsousa · 01-20-2011, 01:13 PM

nice

thanks