verify a user

[David Bear]

If I have a unix user name, is there a way to verify that the user really
exists and query default group memberships?

 

[Dan Sommers]

If I have a unix user name, is there a way to verify that the user
really exists and query default group memberships?

import pwd
unix_user_name = raw_input( 'enter a user name:' )
try:
print pwd.getpwnam( unix_user_name )
except KeyError:
print unix_user_name, 'does not exist'

There's a grp module for making similar queries against /etc/group (or
the modern equivalent thereof).

Regards,
Dan