I need to create a shell script that can take a user name put in
eg. and have it automatically find that users primary group. I have tried to use the groups command in my shell scripts but it returns all the users groups, when I must use only the primary group for the rest of my shell script. Also this cannot be their GID but it must be the name of the primary group their in.

You can still use the 'groups' command and just use awk with sed to grab only the first (primary group) that it displays. Anyhow, you can play around with that. Instead I used the cut command. The script below will:

1. Display the GID (which I know you are not interested but hey, in case you want to see it)
2. Take the GID and compare that with the /etc/group file to grab the primary group
3. Then displays the Primary Group how you wanted.

As you can see, it's pretty straight forward. If you have any questions, let me know. Have fun!

-twantrd



#!/bin/bash

PASSFILE="/etc/passwd"
GRPFILE="/etc/group"

echo "Enter the username that you want to look up the Primary Group for: "
read input
gid=`grep $input $PASSFILE | cut -d : -f 4`
echo "GID is: $gid"
pri_grp=`grep $gid $GRPFILE | cut -d : -f 1`
echo "Primary Group is: $pri_grp"

exit 0

You need id command only:

Or that will work too! . Didn't know about that one hehe...

-twantrd