From: Peter Booth <pbooth@...>
Date: 2009-10-13T10:24:57+09:00
Subject: Re: Etc.passwd on OS X

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Steven,

OS/X doesn't use the Unix/Linux /etc/passwd  and /etc/group files.  
Instead it uses
netinfo (or another directory service). There's a command line tool  
dscl that is quite powerful.
See below (ignore the names) or look at the manpages for dscl

Peter


     # Create user mr-potato-head
     sudo "/usr/bin/dscl . -create /Users/mr-potato-head UniqueID 2400"
     sudo "ditto --rsrc '/System/Library/User\ Template/ 
English.lproj/' /Users/mr-potato-head"
     sudo "chown -R mr-potato-head /Users/mr-potato-head"
     sudo "/usr/bin/dscl . -create /Users/mr-potato-head  
NFSHomeDirectory /Users/mr-potato-head"
     #    mr-potato-head user needs admin access
     sudo "/usr/bin/dscl . -append /groups/wheel GroupMembership mr- 
potato-head"
     # Create user mr-radish
     sudo "/usr/bin/dscl . -create /Users/mr-radish UniqueID 2410"
     sudo "ditto --rsrc '/System/Library/User\ Template/ 
English.lproj/' /Users/mr-radish"
     sudo "chown -R mr-potato-head /Users/mr-radish"
     sudo "/usr/bin/dscl . -create /Users/mr-radish NFSHomeDirectory / 
Users/mr-radish"
     sudo "/usr/bin/dscl . create /Groups/vegetable PrimaryGroupID 2420"
     sudo "/usr/bin/dscl . append /groups/vegetable GroupMembership mr- 
potato-head"
     sudo "/usr/bin/dscl . append /groups/vegetable GroupMembership mr- 
radish"


On Oct 12, 2009, at 8:28 PM, Steven Hansen wrote:

>
> Hi,
>
> I'm wondering if anyone knows how the Etc class locates users for OS  
> X.
>
> The documentation suggests that it simply parses the /etc/passwd file
> and returns a list of the users in there.  However, I don't think this
> is true for OSX.  When I look through my /etc/passwd file I notice  
> that
> there are several users missing, including the username that Iogin  
> with.
>
> However, the Etc class still manages to find all of the users on my
> system...  For OSX, does the Etc class inspect an alternate file?  If
> so, what file is it getting its information from?
>
>
> Thanks,
> Steven
> -- 
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
>


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