Proper way to query user and group database on a Unix host?

[Mike MacCana]

Hi folks,

What's the proper way to query the passwd and group database on a Unix
host?

I'd like to fetch the users in a group (obviously from name services),
but my many varied searches can't find any reference of someone ever
looking up users on a Unix system, just NT. Weird, I know.

Currently I'm calling the getent command, which works well enough, but
surely there's a more Pythonic method of looking up OS user and group
data ...

## Get the full group database entry, leave just the user list, and split the list on comma
groupname=users
groupsusers = commands.getoutput('getent group '+groupname).split(':',-1)[3].split(',')
Cheers,

Mike

________________________________________________
Mike MacCana
Technical Specialist
Australia Linux and Virtualisation Services

IBM Global Services
Level 14, 60 City Rd
Southgate Vic 3000

Phone: [phone]
Fax: +61-3-8656-2423
Email: mm******@au1.ibm.com

[Chris Brannon]

Mike MacCana <mm******@au1.ibm.comwrites:

Hi folks,

What's the proper way to query the passwd and group database on a Unix
host?

Use the pwd and grp modules, respectively.

## Get the full group database entry, leave just the user list,
## and split the list on comma
groupname=users
groupsusers = commands.getoutput('getent group '+groupname).split(':',-1)[3].split(',')

Instead, do this:

import grp
groupname = 'users'
groupusers = grp.getgrnam(groupname)[3]
print 'The group named "users" contains:'
for username in groupusers:
print username

The functions from the grp and pwd modules return tuples. The docs describe
their formats.

Hope this helps,
-- Chris

[Sebastian \lunar\ Wiesner]

Chris Brannon <cm*******@cox.net>:

Iirc since Python 2.5 these tuples are named ...

Instead, do this:

import grp
groupname = 'users'
groupusers = grp.getgrnam(groupname)[3]

.... thus this line could be written as:

groupusers = grp.getgrnam(groupname).gr_mem

Slightly more readable, imho

--
Freedom is always the freedom of dissenters.
(Rosa Luxemburg)

[Guilherme Polo]

On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 9:16 AM, Sebastian lunar Wiesner
<ba***********@gmx.netwrote:

Chris Brannon <cm*******@cox.net>:

Iirc since Python 2.5 these tuples are named ...

>Instead, do this:

import grp
groupname = 'users'
groupusers = grp.getgrnam(groupname)[3]

... thus this line could be written as:

groupusers = grp.getgrnam(groupname).gr_mem

That is valid since Python 2.3 actually

Slightly more readable, imho

--
Freedom is always the freedom of dissenters.
(Rosa Luxemburg)
--
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list

--
-- Guilherme H. Polo Goncalves

[Sebastian \lunar\ Wiesner]

Guilherme Polo <gg****@gmail.com>:

On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 9:16 AM, Sebastian lunar Wiesner
<ba***********@gmx.netwrote:

>Chris Brannon <cm*******@cox.net>:

Iirc since Python 2.5 these tuples are named ...

>>Instead, do this:

import grp
groupname = 'users'
groupusers = grp.getgrnam(groupname)[3]

... thus this line could be written as:

groupusers = grp.getgrnam(groupname).gr_mem

That is valid since Python 2.3 actually

Thanks for clarification
--
Freedom is always the freedom of dissenters.
(Rosa Luxemburg)