Scripting Question

cyberfunk007 · n00b Joined: 11 Oct 2002 Posts: 23

Hi,

I have a list of 200 or so names in the following format in a text file.

joe bloggs
harry potter
smelly smith

I need to grep all of those names and see which ones exist in the password file /etc/passwd.

I would like the names that actually exist to be directed to an output file so I can see exactly who has access out of that list. I have tried numerous things but I cant seem to get the format right. I am a newb! lol and I am also using the POSIX shell.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated as I need this done in 5 hours.

Thanks in advance

Cyber

aja · Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2003 1:06 am Post subject:

I think xargs is what you are looking for (you can get it to use the same command on every line of standard input.) Piping from cat lets you use the file as input:

cyberfunk007 · n00b Joined: 11 Oct 2002 Posts: 23

Thanks for that,

I tried the syntax above, but it did not work. I got the following error message

aja · Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2003 2:06 am Post subject:

You have the name "Bernie O'Brien" in your text file. The single quote is screwing it up. Change to Bernie O''Brian (or is it Bernie O\'Brien?) or use sed to change on the fly.

cyberfunk007 · n00b Joined: 11 Oct 2002 Posts: 23

Hi,

I am still having no luck

I am not that good at using sed and cant get it to work properly...

Any other ideas would be great.

Cyber

aja · Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2003 4:23 am Post subject:

First, confirm my diagnosis (I have been wrong before) by removing names with characters like ('), and post your results. If it works for 'normal' names, we can work on dealing with special cases.