garcimo:

The documentation (perldoc -f getpwent) indicates that getpwent returns a list of values like:

my ( $name, $passwd, $uid, $gid, $qutoa, $comment, $gcos, $dir, $shell
+, $expire ) = getpwent;

[download]

and, if the user doesn't exist, it returns a "single meaningless true value". So I'd suggest calling getpwent, and then checking one of the values after the first one to see if it's defined or not. If not, the user ought not exist. So something like:

my ( $name, $passwd, $uid, $gid, $qutoa, $comment, $gcos, $dir, $shell
+, $expire ) = getpwent($account);

# An account *must* have a UID, so let's check that
if ( defined $uid ) {
   print "User $account uid=$uid.  OK to delete user!\n";
}
else {
   print "User $account does not exist...\n";
}

[download]

...roboticus

When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.

In reply to Re: use getpwent to find users and delete them by roboticus
in thread use getpwent to find users and delete them by garcimo

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