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Possible Duplicate:
How to list all users and groups on linux?

How to determine all the users on a Linux machine (not only the ones who are logged in)?

I searched and found the following command:

$ cat /etc/passwd | grep "/home" | cut -d: -f1

But my concern is that I could not find root in the output of above command. Also when I try who command I get the same response when I am logged in a root and as a normal user. Please help!

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sumit
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  • You've specified additional information for your question in the comments. Please update your question to include these points. – Dana the Sane Sep 11 '11 at 19:18

3 Answers3

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your command wont find root because root's home is /root not /home/[user] also, it wont show remote network accounts.

a better command is getent passwd | cut -d ":" -f1.

Sirex
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  • But what about the `who` command? When I am logged into as `sam` user then it shows output `sam`. When I am logged into as `root` then also it shows `sam`. – sumit Sep 11 '11 at 18:28
  • refer to "man who" for more info. Shows logged in users, not all users. re your query, did you log in as sam and then run su/sudo, or did you go directly as root from login prompt. Also if you are logged in as sam else where (like anouther window) itll show up – Sirex Sep 11 '11 at 18:33
  • `getent` is the right way to check the user database. – Pablo Martinez Sep 11 '11 at 18:40
  • Sirex: I want to login as a account which is having /bin/false shell. How can I do it? Is there any way to do it? – sumit Sep 11 '11 at 18:45
  • this is nearly always a bad idea. However you can do it by changing the shell to be /bin/bash and setting a password on the account. In all seriousness though, the need to do this is a good indication of a case of "you're doing it wrong" – Sirex Sep 11 '11 at 20:42
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Because $HOME folder for root is /root, not in /home.

To list all the 'real' users have shell (assumming is /bin/bash), you can use:

grep "/bin/bash" /etc/passwd | cut -d: -f1
quanta
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  • Ohh..ok. But what about the `who` command? When I am logged into as `sam` user then it shows sam. When I am logged into as `root` then also it shows sam. – sumit Sep 11 '11 at 18:15
  • Please give us the output of `who` and `egrep 'root|sam' /etc/passwd`? – quanta Sep 11 '11 at 18:23
  • Output of `egrep`: root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash operator:x:11:0:operator:/root:/sbin/nologin – sumit Sep 11 '11 at 18:24
  • Output of 'who': sam pts/0 Sep 11 23:01 – sumit Sep 11 '11 at 18:25
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Take the search (grep) out and cut at the first semi-colon: cat /etc/passwd | cut -d: -f1

xofer
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  • It lists many many things like: `operator, games, gopher, ftp, dbus, vcsa`. All of them are users? – sumit Sep 11 '11 at 18:14
  • Yes, they are users. Many are created by the OS/applications on install. Have a look at `cat /etc/passwd` – xofer Sep 11 '11 at 18:18
  • yes, but unless they have a shell in them like /bin/bash they cant log in. typically the shell is set to /bin/false for these "service accounts". – Sirex Sep 11 '11 at 18:28
  • ok, to exclude /bin/false, use `cat /etc/passwd | grep -v "/bin/false" | cut -d: -f1` To only include /bin/bash use `cat /etc/passwd | grep "/bin/bash" | cut -d: -f1` – xofer Sep 11 '11 at 18:36
  • Sirex: I want to login as a account which is having /bin/false shell. How can I do it? Is there any way to do it? – sumit Sep 11 '11 at 18:37
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    Login as root and `su - -s /bin/bash`. – quanta Sep 11 '11 at 18:41