hi i have a question for using searching in /etc/shadow with wildcard.it just struct to my mind but i cudnt get hold of it.if any of the linux gurus can help me out.help will be duly appreciated. my /etc/shadow file is vscan:!:12775:0:99999:7::: man:*:8902:0:10000:::: man:!:12775:0:99999:7::: man:!:12775:0:99999:7::: news:*:8902:0:10000:::: news:!:12775:0:99999:7::: news:!:12775:0:99999:7::: man:*:8902:0:10000:::: man:!:12775:0:99999:7::: man:!:12775:0:99999:7::: baz:$2a$05QeMyohjS9cDVtYwKTU7LacuaJ7ySc2oDQRBnxCWhrHMbceYZ9urZci:12795:0:99999:7::: abhishek:$2asaasajajsasajsjansjnajnaj:12323:0:2323:2::: abhi:@32323232323232:12902:14:93:7:30:: now i want to search using wildcards.So if i take user input as ab* it should give me abhishek and abhi . now i hav used this. for WHO in `$AWK -F":" '{print $1}' $SHADOW` ; do if [ "$WHO" = "$var" ] ; then echo "usr found" else echo "usr not found" fi done can anyone help me out.i mean how do i search with wildcard * .they seems to be having unpredicatble behaviour 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

Hi, I dont quite get the idea of searching a userid in /etc/shadow as a normal user you wont have access on this file. Also if you just want to check the username why not use /etc/passwd?? Anyway have a look at the following script, may hold the key to your problem. #!/bin/bash for WHO in `awk -F":" '{print $1}' /etc/passwd | grep "^$1"` do echo $WHO done print only the user id's from /etc/passwd and use grep to do wild card search with $1 passed from command line as parameter to the script. I put it as grep "^$1" meaning beginging of the word. Hope this helps.

#!/bin/ksh if [ $# -eq 0 ] ; then echo "USAGE $0 pattern" exit 4 fi PATTERN=$1 for who in `awk -F: '{ print $1 }' /etc/shadow` ; do if [ `echo $who | grep -c --regex="$PATTERN"` -gt 0 ] ; then echo "User $who found" fi done