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Given a system where the user data comes from e.g. an OpenLDAP database and is not in the /etc/passwd file. Is it possible to search through the getent passwd database and look up the user id/name by specifying (a part of) the full name?

E.g. getent passwd newbie gives me the following entry

newbie:x:1000:1000:firstname lastname:/home/newbie:/bin/zsh

How can I find all users with "lastname"? Is there something like getpwnam for the gecos field?

Note: I can not use just getent passwd (with no username) and then parse that since my database is too big.

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3 Answers 3

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I have not found a way to search the database, but looking up entries in OpenLDAP directly works for me.

$ ldapsearch -x -h ldap.example.com -ZZ \
             -D cn=lookup,dc=example,dc=com -W \
             -b ou=People,dc=example,dc=com -LLL \
             sn=lastname uid
dn: uid=newbie,ou=People,dc=example,dc=com  
uid: newbie

$
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You could use awk on the output of getent passwd:

getent passwd | awk -F: '$5 ~ /lastname/ {print $1}'
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  • oh, i should have clarified that the database is too large to output everything with getent passwd Commented Apr 19, 2018 at 3:33
  • Oh, I see. In that case you'll have to use database-specific tools (like you already are). Commented Apr 19, 2018 at 4:23
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You could use something like the following sed command:

$ SURNAME=Smith
$ getent passwd | sed -n '/'$SURNAME'/s/^\([^:]*\):\([^:]*\):\([^:]*\):\([^:]*\):\([[:alpha:]]\+ '$SURNAME'\):\([^:]*\):\([^:]*\)$/\1 (\5)/p'
$ fps (Finnbarr Smith)
  jms (James Smith)
$

The above 'sed` regex assumes that the GECOS field contains exactly <FIRSTNAME><SPACE><LASTNAME>, e.g. "James Smith", as per your question. It can easily be modified to accommodate other GECOS field layouts.

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  • The user mentioned in another comment that they were unable to use getent passwd since the database was too big. Commented Apr 19, 2018 at 5:37
  • @Kusalananda. Ah, the user added that comment after I read their question. Commented Apr 19, 2018 at 5:40

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