hi all i m just stuffed in a problem if somebody can help me out i hav /etc/shadow file with enteries like bin:*:9797:0::::: daemon:*:9797:0::::: adm:*:9797:0::::: lp:*:9797:0::::: sync:*:9797:0::::: shutdown:*:9797:0::::: halt:*:9797:0::::: mail:*:9797:0::::: news:*:9797:0::::: uucp:*:9797:0::::: abhargav:$1$c6F/ngOF$drzN.QbsW2VK69SgHXsRL/:12868:0:99999:7::: aby:$1$KkQ0GmPM$0Huso4Y.16OI9clt3keeU0:12890:0:99999:7::: now i want to check whether the second entry with "*" wildcard is there or not so my code is #!/bin/sh for WHO in `awk -F":" '{print $2}' /etc/shadow` ; do if [ "${WHO}" = '*' ] ; then echo "they are not the real users " else echo "they are users ${WHO} " fi done but some how it doesnt take "*" it starts counting the files in the directories i m getting mad @ it.plz help hi my question is abt scripting. i want to find the diffrence in two dates. dates are in /var/log/messages Mar 27 05:48:02 abhargav sshd[1151]: Apr 2 15:31:17 abhargav sshd[1151]: no

cat /etc/shadow | while read LINE do WHO="\\"`echo $LINE | cut -d":" -f2` if [ $WHO = '\*' ] ; then echo "they are not the real users " else echo "they are users `echo $WHO | cut -c2-" fi done Luke Chi