Check Whether a User Exists

Question

I want to create a script to check whether a user exists. I am using the logic below:

# getent passwd test > /dev/null 2&>1
# echo $?
0
# getent pa         


        

Answer 1

This is what I ended up doing in a Freeswitch bash startup script:

# Check if user exists
if ! id -u $FS_USER > /dev/null 2>&1; then
    echo "The user does not exist; execute below commands to crate and try again:"
    echo "  root@sh1:~# adduser --home /usr/local/freeswitch/ --shell /bin/false --no-create-home --ingroup daemon --disabled-password --disabled-login $FS_USER"
    echo "  ..."
    echo "  root@sh1:~# chown freeswitch:daemon /usr/local/freeswitch/ -R"
    exit 1
fi