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Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2011 01:04:11 -0700
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Subject: Re: Linux : create a user if not exists
From: Chris Rebert <clp2@rebertia.com>
To: smain kahlouch <smainklh@gmail.com>
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On Tue, Aug 16, 2011 at 12:45 AM, smain kahlouch <smainklh@gmail.com> wrote=
:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm learning the python language and i'm trying to create a user if it is
> not found in the system.
> I figured it out by doing the following thing :
>
>>>> def finduser(user):
> ...=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 for line in open('/etc/passwd'):
> ...=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=
=A0 if line.startswith(user):
> ...=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=
=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 print user, "user exist=
s"
> ...=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=
=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 return True
> ...=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 return False
<snip>
> But i think it's a dirty way to do so. Is there another way to manage use=
rs
> with python ?

You can replace the /etc/passwd parsing with a call to pwd.getpwnam():
http://docs.python.org/library/pwd.html#pwd.getpwnam

Cheers,
Chris