Use getent to Display LUM Users On a Linux Workstation

Novell Cool Solutions: Tip
By Aaron Gresko

Digg This - Slashdot This Posted: 13 Oct 2005

Linux User Management (LUM) allows Linux users to be created, managed, and authenticated using eDirectory. Managing LUM users is usually accomplished in iManager or by using the nam commands from the command line (namuseradd, etc).

It is often useful to know what users can currently access a workstation. One option is to use namuserlist. For example, running namuserlist with the context o=novell yields the following:

#namuserlist -x o=novell
admin:x:600:600::/home/admin:/bin/bash
jbrown:x:603:600::/home/jbrown:/bin/bash
juser:x:602:600::/home/juser:/bin/bash

The only limitation with namuserlist is needing to know the context to look for user objects. namuserlist also only lists the users in eDirectory. The command getent will display all the local and eDirectory users the system knows about.

#getent passwd
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
bin:x:1:1:bin:/bin:/bin/bash
daemon:x:2:2:Daemon:/sbin:/bin/bash
lp:x:4:7:Printing daemon:/var/spool/lpd:/bin/bash
mail:x:8:12:Mailer daemon:/var/spool/clientmqueue:/bin/false
games:x:12:100:Games account:/var/games:/bin/bash
wwwrun:x:30:8:WWW daemon apache:/var/lib/wwwrun:/bin/false
ftp:x:40:49:FTP account:/srv/ftp:/bin/bash
nobody:x:65534:65533:nobody:/var/lib/nobody:/bin/bash
man:x:13:62:Manual pages viewer:/var/cache/man:/bin/bash
news:x:9:13:News system:/etc/news:/bin/bash
uucp:x:10:14:Unix-to-Unix CoPy system:/etc/uucp:/bin/bash
at:x:25:25:Batch jobs daemon:/var/spool/atjobs:/bin/bash
sshd:x:71:65:SSH daemon:/var/lib/sshd:/bin/false
ntp:x:74:65534:NTP daemon:/var/lib/ntp:/bin/false
postfix:x:51:51:Postfix Daemon:/var/spool/postfix:/bin/false
novell_nobody:x:100:101:Novell System User:/opt/novell:/bin/bash
novlxregd:x:101:102:Novell XRegD System User:/var/opt/novell/xtier/xregd:/bin/false
novlxsrvd:x:102:102:Novell XSrvD System User:/var/opt/novell/xtier/xsrvd:/bin/false
iprint:x:103:103::/var/opt/novell/iprint:/sbin/nologin
tomcat:x:104:104:Tomcat - Apache Servlet/JSP Engine:/usr/share/tomcat:/bin/bash
novlwww:x:105:8:Novell System User:/var/opt/novell/novlwww:/bin/bash
admin:x:600:600::/home/admin:/bin/bash
juser:x:602:600::/home/juser:/bin/bash
jbrown:x:603:600::/home/jbrown:/bin/bash

Notice the output includes all the users that can access the system.

The getent command can also display group information. Running getent group displays all of the groups on the system including LUM groups.

Novell Cool Solutions (corporate web communities) are produced by WebWise Solutions. www.webwiseone.com