On Fri, March 3, 2006 1:51 pm, Eric Peterson wrote: > On 3/3/06, Raymond Norton <admin at lctn.org> wrote: >> I'm setting up a new mail server and have moved over the necessary user >> files. Is there a way to copy the info from the old >> server /etc/passwd, /etc/group , and /etc/shadow to the same files on >> the new server, without writing over existing entries or creating >> duplicates? It's definitely best to eyeball it with Vim (even if you use automation), but automation, well, frees time: cat /etc/<file> <new file> | cut -d: -f <n> | sort | uniq -d | uniq works for finding duplicate names (n=1) with /etc/{group,passwd,shadow} works for finding duplicate UID/GID (n=3) with /etc/{group,passwd} if you get the outputs to be empty by tweaking either of the files, and then append the new to the system copy, you should be safe. run {pw,grp}ck for peace of mind. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=- David Carlson thecubic at thecubic.net