Need advice on importing users and groups in GNU/Linux - Linuxers

31 Jan 2004


      Hi,
Need some advise if I'm on the wrong path.
GOAL: Backup data (/home and /volx) , Re-format a GNU/Linux system and 
Re-install fresh from scratch. But I do not want to recreate the users and 
passwords...
This is that I'm planning to do after restoring the /home folder.
1. Overwrite the following files from the old hard disk
    /etc/passwd
    /etc/shadow
    /etc/group
    /etc/gshadow
2. Reset ownership of files and folders since they may not match.
Sample script:
This could be addressed by running a for loop:
 -------------------- -------------------- --------------------
       USERS=`awk -F: '{print $1}' /etc/passwd`
       for USER in $USERS ; do
               chown -R $USER /home/$USER
               chown $USER /var/spool/mail/$USER
       done
 -------------------- -------------------- --------------------
I have created a lot of groups folder in a folder called /vol1 and /vol2
-------------------- -------------------- --------------------
GROUPS=`awk -F: '{print $1}' /etc/group`
       for GROUP in $GROUPS ; do
               chown -R :$GROUP /vol?/$GROUP
       done
 -------------------- -------------------- --------------------
Any comments on this approach being good / bad or flawed?
Regards
Rishi