Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!sci.kun.nl!cs.kun.nl!hansm
From: hansm@cs.kun.nl (Hans Mulder)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell
Subject: Re: Retrieving unique user numbers
Message-ID: <3483@wn1.sci.kun.nl>
Date: 26 Apr 91 14:23:58 GMT
References: <1991Apr25.153217.9572@oakhill.sps.mot.com>
Sender: root@sci.kun.nl
Distribution: comp.unix.shell
Organization: University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Lines: 41

In <1991Apr25.153217.9572@oakhill.sps.mot.com> root@oakhill.sps.mot.com (Operator) writes:

>Hello all --

>I was asked by a user how to retrieve/identify the unique
>user number from within the shell environment (ksh). What
>he is looking for would, preferably, function in much the
>same fashion as the command [echo `/usr/bin/logname`], where
>the result of this op could then be piped into a subsequent
>operation. 

On this system (running SunOS 4.1.1)

id | sed 's/[^=]*=//;s/(.*//'

tells you your uid.  You didn't say what OS you are running.
The man page for id(1v) suggest that it is a SysVism, so it may not be
available on your system.

If you're worried about the efficiency of invoking sed, you'll have to
write a C program that prints the output of the getuid() system call.


BTW, is there any difference between

echo `/usr/bin/logname`

and

logname

??  In general, the echo `...` constructs reduces whitespace, but your
users don't have whitespace in their login names, have they?

>Many thanks,

You're welcome

>Vance

Hans Mulder	hansm@cs.kun.nl