Hi Peeps,

Can you tell me the quickest way to check if a user exists on my *nix box?

I am currently using the following code: 
if(defined(getpwnam($username))) {
    $message = $message.'<p>The Chosen Username Already Exists.</p>';
    $found_err = 1; }

[download]
Is There a quicker way than this, or is this as good as it gets?


Also, i want to perfom the fastest possible search of a file (sample shown below), to see if it contains the the contents of $username in the the first field (myusername): 
Mon Jun 16 01:01:03 2003:myusername:mypassword:my@old.email:111.222.33
+3.444
Mon Jun 16 01:01:04 2003:myusername2:mypassword2:my@old.email:213.111.
+231.444

[download]
....and would the code for this search be quicker if the file only contained 'myusername', and no other data?
Cheers Peeps.

In reply to Quick User Existance Check? by Anonymous Monk

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