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  #1  
Old November 12th, 2007, 02:19 AM
PostCode PostCode is offline
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Need some assistance

Yes, it is homework but I am not asking for the answer.

I'm taking a class on operating systems and we are entering an intro to the cli in Linux (after completing a really boring Windows XP Command Line section).

The teacher has given the following question:

Q: View the file /etc/passwd. This is a file that lists all of the users who have accounts on the host computer followed by a colon character and other user information. The first user ID in this list is root – the system administrator.

The first sub-question to this was who is the second user listed. That part I understand. Root was first, bin was second.

The next sub-question to this is:

What are two other names for this user?

That is, what are the two other names for the bin user. I went to a website that gave me some minor details/explanation on this particular file but not enough to really answer this question. That location is below:

http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/underst...d-file-format/

Again, from that information I'm still unclear as too exactly what the two users/usernames are. Perhaps aliases?

I'm not asking for the answer but shoot, an explanation would be great. I'm not new to Linux but these kinds of details are not something I've ever worked with before.
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  #2  
Old November 12th, 2007, 05:18 AM
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kage kage is offline
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Is there a certain distribution of Linux that you are using for this class? The reason I ask is "bin" is not the second listing in /etc/passwd in every distribution. Its possible for multiple usernames to have the same user ID, but the order in which they appear would be irrelevant.
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  #3  
Old November 12th, 2007, 07:05 AM
PostCode PostCode is offline
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I wouldn't have a clue, at least yet. The way it works is all actual class work is done via putty. I use Linux in a VMWare session to do any homework, practice, and to just work with the OS.

Is there a way to pull the version up, Like finger or something?
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  #4  
Old November 12th, 2007, 05:16 PM
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kage kage is offline
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You can just run "uname -a" to give you a pretty good idea. That won't tell you precisely what distribution you're using, but it will tell you the kernel, which is a good clue.
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  #5  
Old November 12th, 2007, 05:30 PM
PostCode PostCode is offline
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Ok. Right now the servers at the college are down for maintenance. I'll login this afternoon and see what I can find.
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