useradd results

[Michael Velez]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: redhat-list-bounces at redhat.com 
> [mailto:redhat-list-bounces at redhat.com] On Behalf Of Muhammad Rizwan
> Sent: Saturday, March 12, 2005 9:04 AM
> To: redhat-list at redhat.com
> Subject: useradd results
> 
> Hello
> 
> Is there any way to get the results of useradd command. Means 
> if i run useradd command through shell script or c code, then 
> is there any way to get the nessage return by command in program.
> 
> Any idea?
> 
> Thanks
> 
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There are several ways to capture output from a command in a shell script.

If you want to capture the return value, you can use the $? variable, which
will return the return value of the last command executed.  For example, the
return value would be 0 if the command executes successfully, 6 if the user
already exists, and 3 if you have specified a bad username.  I don't know
the return value for other error situations.

If you're looking to capture any return message that useradd generates, you
could either use the grave accents: ` ` or pipe the output to another
command.

Example using the $? Variable:

useradd ...
if [[ $? = 0 ]]
then
	echo "useradd: command completed successfully"
fi

Example using grave accents:
RETURNVARIABLE=`useradd ...`

Example using pipes

useradd ... | awk ...
useradd ... | sed ...

I think this version of useradd only returns error messages so there is no
point in piping to awk or sed.  Would verifying the return value with $?
Satisfy what you're doing?

Hope this helps,
Michael