Shell Programming and Scripting

I am looking to add 3 lines in /etc/passwd via a script. Can you please give me an idea on how to write a script that can do that?

the simplest way:

Code:

echo "line:to:add" >> \etc\passwd

an alternative is to call the useradd, groupadd, and passwd commands in your shell script. this way, you need not alter the \etc\passwd file yourself

Yogesh !! path name should be in unix style...
it should be /etc/passwd and not \etc\passwd right ??

Right!

With most versions of Unix the password is no longer stored in the /etc/passwd file. Instead another file, often /etc/shadow, has the passwords. These 2 files must be kept in sync. Add records to both at the same time.

I like the idea of using useradd. The passwd program is hard to use in a script unless you use expect with it. There are several examples of this on our site which you can find with our search function.