Thread: Script to create group specific symbolic links for new users

I'm currently working on a script that will automate symbolic links for new users that access our redhat 5 systems. I want this script to gather information about what groups they are in and then add the corresponding links to their home directory so I don't have to do it.

Currently I have this:

Code:

!/bin/bash

for name  in `groups`; do
ln -s /u03/dl/$name /home/`whoami`;
done

This works except I've forgotten I don't need it to make a script for groups that don't have links like the group that is their user name or wheel etc. Can I specify which groups and still use the groups command? Or will I need to add a fancy if statement in there.

Thanks,

hi,

bash can handle this using extglobs

Code:

#!/bin/bash

shopt -s extglob nullglob

userGroups=$(groups)
user=$(whoami)
for group in ${userGroups//@($user|wheel)}
do ln -s /u03/dl/$group /home/$user
done

Originally Posted by Watael

hi,

bash can handle this using extglobs

Code:

#!/bin/bash

shopt -s extglob nullglob

userGroups=$(groups)
user=$(whoami)
for group in ${userGroups//@($user|wheel)}
do ln -s /u03/dl/$group /home/$user
done

For multiple groups can i just do ($user|wheel)($user|group2)?

just add group2

Code:

@($user|wheel|group2)

Originally Posted by Watael

just add group2

Code:

@($user|wheel|group2)

This appears to do sort of the opposite of what I needed. Instead of making 2 links for each group it make a link for every group but the two specified.

I probably misunderstood what your needs

what have you got ?
what do you want to have?

Sure,

I have new users who will be logging in at some point and instead of creating these symbolic links to /u03/dl/group1 /home/user and /u03/dl/group2 /home/user I'd rather have this script that takes 2 specified groups I know have directories relative to them
so say group1 has directory /u03/dl/group1 so if user is in group1 they need symbolic link for that directory in their home directory to make their lives easier. I just wanted to make this process easier as opposed to them having to call me every time a new user is added to the system.

it's not very clear yet.

say user1 is part of group1 and group2
(s)he uses the script, so /U03/dl/group1 and /U03/dl/group2 are linked to his/er home
`groups` shows user1's groups (s)he is in (group1 and in group2)
then

Code:

for group in $(groups); do ln -s /U03/dl/$group $HOME/; done

does the job
what exactly do you want?

Well the thing is user1 will actually be in around 20 or 30 groups, but not all of them need to have links to directories only a specific 1 or 2 groups related to the user. And these will be the same 1 or 2 groups for every user as well.

so say user1 has group1 through group20 but all i need links for is group2 and group13
but not any of the other groups.

Does that help?

not entirely

how do you know it's group2 and group13 that have to be linked?

if it's always the same, then

Code:

for group in group2 group13; do...