Hi, I am just wondering how I would go about making a script run the first time a user logs in? It's specifically so I can make a mysql account for all new users, and preferably I'd like the script to delete itself upon successful execution.

You could, perhaps, provide a general-purpose script to add the account, and add a line to run this from the .profile script in the user's home directory, for example:
Then add a line to the end of the "add_mysql_user.sh" script, to delete this line once it has been run:

Ok, that sounds like a good idea, I was just reading up on the .bash_profile file, is that the same one? Or should I go with .profile if it's a seperate file...However how do I get $USER into that file?

At a guess, is it similar to how a function works, in that the mysql_add_user.sh is written with the $USER variable in place,....and it just takes the actual user name and does its job?

Thanks.

Hmm... in Debian I don't have a .bash_profile script, but I think putting it there will achieve the same thing. You just need a script that is executed at login.

Similar - $USER is a standard environment variable containing the user's login name, which should be set at login. If it is passed to the script as the first command line argument, it will be available in the script as the positional variable $1.

Actually, as it is an environment variable, it will be inherited by the add user script, but I generally find it clearer to pass arguments explicitly.

More on Shell Scripting from the Rute Users' Guide.

Awesome. That sounds all gravy. However now I am having trouble with granting myself privileges....Can you shed any light?


UPDATE:

I've fixed it now, thank you for your help!