CfgTie::TieUser -- an associative array of user names and ids to information

NAME

CfgTie::TieUser -- an associative array of user names and ids to information

SYNOPSIS

makes the user database available as a regular hash.

        tie %user,'CfgTie::TieUser'
        print "randym's full name: ", $user{'randym'}->{gcos}, "\n";

DESCRIPTION

This is a straightforward hash tie that allows us to access the user database sanely.

It cross ties with the groups packages and the mail packages

Ties

There are two ties available for programmers:

tie %user,'CfgTie::TieUser'
$user{$name} will return a hash reference of the named user information.

tie %user_id,'CfgTie::TieUser_id'
$user_id{$id} will return a hash reference for the specified user.

Structure of hash

Any given user entry has the following information associated with it (the keys are case-insensitive):

Name
Login name

GroupId
The principle group the user belongs to.

Id
The user id number that they have been assigned. It is possible for many different user names to be given the same id. However, changing the id for the user (i.e., setting it to a new one) has one of two effects. If user'Chg_FS is set 1, then all the files in the system owned by that id will changed to the new id in addition to changing the id in the system table. Otherwise, only the system table will be modified.

Comment
Home
The user's home folder

LOGIN_Last
This is the information from the last time the user logged in. It is an array reference to data like: 
        [$time, $line, $from_host]

Shell
The user's shell

AuthMethod
The authentication method if other than the default. (Note: This can be set, but currently can't get fetched.)

ExpireDate
The date the account expires on. (Note: this can be set, but currently can't be fetched.)

Inactive
The number of days after a password expires. (Note: this can be set, but currently can't be fetched.)

Priority
The scheduling priority for that user. (Note: this requires that BSD::Resource be installed.)

Quota
RUsage
The process resource consumption by the user. Note: This requires that BSD::Resource be installed.

Returns a list reference of the form:

   [$usertime, $systemtime, $maxrss,  $ixrss,   $idrss,  $isrss,  $minflt,
    $majflt,   $nswap,      $inblock, $oublock, $msgsnd, $msgrcv, $nsignals,
    $nvcsw, $nivcsw]

Plus two (probably) obsolete fields:

Password
This is the encrypted password, but will probably be obsolete.

GCOS
General Electric Comprehensive Operating System or General Comprehensive Operating System field

This is now the user's full name under many Unix's, incl. Linux.

Each of these entries can be modified (even deleted), and they will be reflected in the overall system. Additionally, the programmer can set any other associated key, but this information will only be available to the running Perl script.

Configuration Variables

Additional Routines

&CfgTie::TieUser'stat()
&CfgTie::TieUser_id'stat()
Will return stat-like statistics information on the user database.

Adding or overiding methods for user records

Lets say you wanted to change the default HTML handling to a different method. To do this you need only include code like the following:

   package CfgTie::TieUser_rec;
   sub HTML($)
   {
      my $self=shift;
      "<h1>".$Self->{name}."</h1>\n".
      "<table border=0><tr><th align=right>\n".
        join("</td></tr>\n<tr><th align=right>",
          map {$_."</th><td>".$self->{$_}} (sort keys %{$self})
       </td></tr><lt></table>C<\n>";
   }

If, instead, you wanted to add your own keys to the user records, CfgTie::TieUser::add_scalar($Name,$Package) Lets you add scalar keys to user records. The Name specifies the key name to be used; it will be made case-insensitve. The Package specifies the name of the package to be used when tie'ing the key to a value. (The TIESCALAR is passed the user id as a parameter).

CfgTie::TieUser::add_hash($Name,$Package) Lets you add hash keys to user records. The Name specifies the key name to be used; it will be made case insensitve. The Package specifies the name of the package to be used when tie'ing the key to a value. (The TIEHASH is passed the user id as a parameter).

Miscellaneous

$CfgTie::TieUser_rec'usermod contains the path to the program usermod. This can be modified as required.

$CfgTie::TieUser_rec'useradd contains the path to the program useradd. This can be modified as required.

$CfgTie::TieUser_rec'userdel contains the path to the program userdel. This can be modified as required.

Not all keys are supported on all systems.

This may transparently use a shadow tie in the future.

When the changes are reflected to /etc/passwd

Files

/etc/passwd /etc/group /etc/shadow

See Also

the CfgTie::Cfgfile manpage, the CfgTie::TieAliases manpage, the CfgTie::TieGeneric manpage, the CfgTie::TieGroup manpage,the CfgTie::TieHost manpage, the CfgTie::TieMTab manpage, the CfgTie::TieNamed manpage,the CfgTie::TieNet manpage, the CfgTie::TiePh manpage, the CfgTie::TieProto manpage,the CfgTie::TieRCService manpage,the CfgTie::TieRsrc manpage, the CfgTie::TieServ manpage, the CfgTie::TieShadow manpage

group(5), passwd(5), shadow(5), usermod(8), useradd(8), userdel(8)

Caveats

The current version does cache some user information.

Author

Randall Maas (randym@acm.org)

 CfgTie::TieUser -- an associative array of user names and ids to information