Re: [PLUG] Finding a /etc/group entry containing a user list

[Fred Stluka <fred@bristle.com>]

JP,

> Of course, the flip side is that other users in group15 will have
> perms they don't need.  I don't really care too much for this
> purpose, but usually that would matter.  So maybe this question is
> less useful than I thought at first and yet-another-group really
> is the best answer.
Yeah, I'd think you usually want to create a new group unless
there's an existing group that really does serve the same purpose.
Otherwise, you end up with one group serving 2 purposes, which
may diverge in the future, and then you'd have a mess.  Also, as
you said, it will often matter that extra people are in the group
when they don't need to be.  So, I think the only time you'll
really use this script will be to find out whether there is
already a group for this purpose.

How often do you have to do this, that chaining greps as an ad hoc
on-the-fly solution isn't good enough?  Sounds like you've inherited
a system with a ton of groups with non-obvious names.  Bummer!

--Fred
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Fred Stluka -- mailto:fred@bristle.com -- http://bristle.com/~fred/
Bristle Software, Inc -- http://bristle.com -- Glad to be of service!
Open Source: Without walls and fences, we need no Windows or Gates.
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On 11/12/11 2:38 PM, JP Vossen wrote:
> On 11/12/2011 02:30 PM, David Coulson wrote:
> > Just run 'id' against each username and parse out the output. Remember
> > /etc/group is typically just for supplemental groups - The user's
> > primary group is usually only in /etc/passwd.
>
> Since this is a Linux system, the primary group is the same as the user name, so that's no help.
>
> I'd forgotten about the 'id' command, thanks for the reminder.  But I'm not sure I see how that 
> helps me; it seems like I'd still need to parse stuff into some kind of data structure so I can 
> get my answer.
>
> Maybe I need an example.
>
> If I have user01 to user10 (decimal, not binary :), and group01 to group40, I want to know that, 
> say, group15 contains 8 out of 10 of my users, so if I can add user09 and user10 to group15, 
> everyone will have the right perms once I chgrp the dir tree.
>
> Of course, the flip side is that other users in group15 will have perms they don't need.  I don't 
> really care too much for this purpose, but usually that would matter.  So maybe this question is 
> less useful than I thought at first and yet-another-group really is the best answer.
>
> Thanks,
> JP
> ----------------------------|:::======|-------------------------------
> JP Vossen, CISSP            |:::======|      http://bashcookbook.com/
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