bash script and greping with command line - bash

Question

new to bash scripting so just wondering if i am doing this code right at all. im trying to search /etc/passwd and then grep and print users.
usage ()
{
echo "usage: ./file.sk user"
}
# test if we have two arguments on the command line
if [ $# != 1 ]
then
usage
exit
fi
if [[ $# < 0 ]];then
usage
exit
fi
# Search for user
fullname=`grep $1 /etc/passwd | cut -f 5 -d :`
firstname=`grep $1 /etc/passwd | cut -f 5 -d : | cut -f 1 -d " "`
#check if there. if name is founf: print msg and line entry
not sure as how to this or if im doing this right...
am i doing this right?

Answer 1

grep $1 /etc/passwd | while IFS=: read -r username passwd uid gid info home shell
do
echo $username: $info
done

Answer 2

This might work for you:
fullname=$(awk -F: '/'$1'/{print $5}' /etc/passwd)
firstname=${fullname/ *}

Answer 3

You're on the right track.
But I think the 2nd if [[ $# < 0 ]] .... fi block doesn't get you much. Your first test case gets the situation right, 'This script requires 1 argument or quits'.
Also, I don't see what you need firstname for, so a basic test is
case "${fullname:--1}" in
-[1] ) printf "No userID found for input=$1\n" ; exit 1 ;;
* )
# assume it is OK
# do what every you want after this case block
;;
esac
You can of course, duplicate this using "${firstname}" if you really need the check.
OR as an equivalent if ... fi is
if [[ "${fullname}" == "" ]] ; then
printf "No userID found for input=$1\n" ; exit 1
fi
note to be more efficient, you can parse ${fullname} to get firstname without all the calls to grep etc, i.e.
firstname=${fullname%% *}
Let me know if you need for me to explain :--1} and %% *} variable modifiers.
I hope this helps.

Answer 4

Instead of this:
fullname=`grep $1 /etc/passwd | cut -f 5 -d :`
firstname=`grep $1 /etc/passwd | cut -f 5 -d : | cut -f 1 -d " "`
Try this:
fullname=$(cut -f5 -d: /etc/passwd | grep "$1")
if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]; then
# not found, do something
fi
firstname=${fullname%% *} # remove the space and everything after
Note that I changed my answer to cut before grep so that it doesn't get false positives if some other field matches the full name you are searching for.

Answer 5

You can simply by reading your input to an array and then printing out your desired fields, something like this -
grep $1 /etc/passwd | while IFS=: read -a arry; do
echo ${arry[0]}:${arry[4]};
done
Test:
jaypal:~/Temp] echo "root:*:0:0:System Administrator:/var/root:/bin/sh" |
while IFS=: read -a arry; do
echo ${arry[0]}:${arry[4]};
done
root:System Administrator