Thread: Check for users and exclude them from a later function

I"m trying to figure out the best way to do this and I think it would be an IF statement. I have 2 users "user1" and "user2" that I need to make sure get excluded from a certain process so in my mind it would look something like

IF $user1 = (array of exlcuded users) then quit
else if
do
other process.

That's a rough idea of how I think it would look. Are there better ways than a simple IF statement for this?

Thanks,

hi,

using case is probably better.

Yeah that's a good idea in case I have multiple situations arise later as opposed to constant nested if statements. Thanks.

Hi,

another way is using grep , i knew , some one will be say why call external program ,

PHP Code:

#!/bin/bash

exclude_array=( user1 user2 user3 )

read -p "Enter Username to search in Exclude List :- " input_user

if echo "${exclude_array[@]}" | grep -q "${input_user}"; then

        echo "${input_user} is in exlude list"

else
        echo "${input_user} is not in exlude list"
fi 


Testing:

Code:

[root@db1 ~]# bash  /tmp/test.sh
Enter Username to search in Exclude List :- user1
user1 is in exlude list
[root@db1 ~]# bash  /tmp/test.sh
Enter Username to search in Exclude List :- user5
user5 is not in exlude list

why call external program

yes, why!?

using bash:

Code:

$ exclude_array=( user1 user2 user3 )
$ oIFS="$IFS"
$ IFS='|'
$ list="${exclude_array[*]}"
$ IFS="$oIFS"
$ [[ user4 = @($list) ]] && echo ok || echo ko
ko
$ [[ user1 = @($list) ]] && echo ok || echo ko
ok

see man bash /Pattern Matching
no need to set extglob on, because the test happens between [[ ]]

Hi Watael,

Can you please explain "@($list)"

I gave the man page and paragraph where to find the infos.

@(pattern-list)
Matches one of the given patterns

works without extglob set for [[, but not for case (for which extglob has to be set using shopt)

I see the idea, but I'm looking for more of an automation script, somthing that will be placed in /etc/profile and run everytime a user logs in. The idea is to automate some of the day to day processes I have to do for new users that I'd like to not have to do anymore.

Thanks for the suggestions though

what's the problem with putting such code in /etc/profile?

Originally Posted by Watael

what's the problem with putting such code in /etc/profile?

Well mainly Rahul's code is the only one that requires input is all. The others will work fine