How to Access All Users in Linux Using Different Commands?
Last Updated :
25 Aug, 2022
Linux allows multiple users with their own custom setting and configuration to work together on the same system, even at the same time. It can even allow a particular user to access several sessions from different locations in order to work on the system. Below is a list of different commands to access the list of users in Linux: 1. less command: Each local user’s information is stored in the “/etc/passwd/” file, where each line in the file represents login information for one user. less command extracts user information from that file. Syntax:
$less /etc/passwd
Example: Each line above has seven fields separated by colons which contains the following information:
- Username
- Encrypted Password
- User ID number(UID)
- User group ID number(GID)
- Full name of the user(GECOS)
- user home directory and
- Login shell respectively.
2. getent command: This command fetches user information from database configured in /etc/nsswitch.conf. file which also includes passwd database. Syntax:
$getent passwd
Example: 3. awk or cut command: If only username is what you want, use awk or cut commands to print only the field containing the username. Syntax:
$awk -F: '{print$1}' /etc/passwd
$cut -d: -f1 /etc/passwd
$getent passwd | awk -F: '{print$1}'
$getent passwd | cut -d: -f1
Example: 4. compgen command: This command also displays the name of all the users without any additional information. Syntax:
$compgen -u
Example: Note: One can use compgen -c command to list all commands available if he/she is not the admin on a Linux system and don’t have the sudo access. 5. who command: This will print the info of the currently logged in user. Syntax:
$who
Example: 6. wc Command: This command will get the total number of users on a particular linux system. Syntax:
$getent passwd |wc -l
Example:
Like Article
Suggest improvement
Share your thoughts in the comments
Please Login to comment...