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Homework and Emergencies Emergency UNIX and Linux Support Accidentally Changed File Ownership to Include a "Comment" [AIX] Post 302711069 by Scott on Friday 5th of October 2012 11:06:20 AM
Old 10-05-2012
OK, the longer version Smilie

A while ago I was asked to remove some users from a production system. Rather than removing them I commented them out in /etc/passwd

i.e.
Code:
# Scott - removed 16.09.12 - userX:*:12345:45678.....

I also removed a symbolic link in /home to the actual home directory, and renamed the actual home directory to something else (i.e. /app/some/dir/prod/userX_DELETEME).

This was handy because a few days later I was asked to put some of the users back!

It's quite a few users so I thought I would write a script to do it recreate the link and rename the directories.

I've generated code to grab the username from the /etc/password but somehow got "# Scott" instead, and for reasons unbeknown seem to have run chown -R on the directory using "# Scott" as the owner, instead of the username.

I'm not quite sure why I ran chown but I have, and now I have a whole bunch of home directories which, when listed, show the owner as "#Scott -". ls -ln.
 

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userdel(1M)															       userdel(1M)

NAME
userdel - delete a user login from the system SYNOPSIS
alternate_password_file] login DESCRIPTION
The command deletes a user login from the system by modifying the appropriate login related files. The command requires the login argument. login is the name to be deleted, specified as a string of printable characters. It may not con- tain a colon or a newline Refer to usergroupname(5) to understand the functionality changes with the Numeric User Group Name feature. Options recognizes the following options: The home directory of login is removed from the system. This directory must exist. Following the successful execution of this command, none of the files and directories under the home directory will be available. If a user is deleted and the home directory is shared by others, then this directory is not deleted even with the option. Force the changes, even if the login is currently in use. Specify that the changes are being made to the alternate password file of NIS specified by the option. The and options should not be used with this option. Specify the path of the alternate password file of NIS. The option is used with the option. In the event where a directory is shared by users of the same group and the owner of that directory is deleted, then the ownership of that directory is propagated to the next user who is sharing that directory. The new owner is determined by looking at the order in which the users sharing this directory are added to the file. If there is only one user remaining then the directory is brought back to unshared mode by resetting the permissions to from NIS This command is aware of NIS user and group entries. Only local users and groups may be deleted or modified with this command. Attempts to delete or modify NIS users or groups will result in an error. NIS users and groups must be administered from the NIS server. The com- mand may fail with the error (return value 6) if the user specified is an NIS user (see passwd(4)). The error (return value 10) is returned if a local user belongs to an NIS group (see group(4)). NFS Errors may occur with the option if the affected directory is within an NFS mounted file system that does not allow root privileges across the NFS mount, and the directory or files within the directory do not have sufficient permissions. RETURN VALUE
exits with one of the following values: Successful completion. Invalid command syntax. Invalid argument supplied to an option. The login to be removed does not exist. The login to be removed is in use. Cannot modify the file, but the login was removed from the file. Unable to remove or modify the home directory. Unable to open file or file is non-existent. file or file busy. Another command may be modifying the file. Cannot delete entry from file. Out of memory. Invalid template file. EXAMPLES
Remove the user from the system: Remove the user from the system and delete home directory from the system: WARNINGS
Because many users may try to write the file simultaneously, a password locking mechanism was devised. If this locking fails after subse- quent retrying, terminates. FILES
Shadow Password file System Password file System group file Lock file used when updating password file SEE ALSO
passwd(1), users(1), groupadd(1M), groupdel(1M), groupmod(1M), logins(1M), useradd(1M), usermod(1M), group(4), passwd(4), shadow(4), user- groupname(5). STANDARDS CONFORMANCE
userdel(1M)
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