Can anyone tell me how /etc/passwd gets updated when a new user is added. I need to maintain a file similar to /etc/passwd thats updates itself when /etc/passwd gets updated. Can anyone tell me how i can do this?


Thanks

Well usually it's done through the useradd command. But it's also possible to manually update /etc/passwd with for example vipw.

You could always write a wrapper script for the useradd command which also updates your other file. But that wouldn't include updates which are done through other methods. You could also create a cron script which checks for updates to the /etc/passwd by maybe checking the modified timestamp and then updating your other file accordingly.

Maybe you would like to explain a little more what needs to get updated in the similar file? Is this only a list of names or is this also dependant on other changes in the /etc/passwd file? Like if someone changes their shell.

What I actually want to do is maintain a file that holds all the groups and the users under that group...so i need to update my file when ever a new user and group gets added...

I have no idea about cron scripts and what they do. If you can tell me something about it or tell me where I can read up that would be very helpful


Thanks for the help

Debdas

man cron would be a good start cron service executes some user predefined tasks on user predefined time intervals.