How To List All Users In Linux

This brief guide explains how to list all users in Linux operating systems. Before getting into the topic, we will see what is /etc/passwd file. Because we depend on this file through out this guide.

A brief note about the /etc/passwd file

In Linux (and Unix in general), the basic information about each user account is stored in "/etc/passwd" file. It is nothing but a plain text file that contains the attributes of all user accounts present in a Linux system.

By default, this file is readable by all users with the help of any text or graphical programs, such as Vi, Nano, Gedit etc or with commands like "cat".

If you open this file..

$ cat /etc/passwd

...you will see several entries like below:

root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
daemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/usr/sbin/nologin
bin:x:2:2:bin:/bin:/usr/sbin/nologin
sys:x:3:3:sys:/dev:/usr/sbin/nologin
sync:x:4:65534:sync:/bin:/bin/sync
games:x:5:60:games:/usr/games:/usr/sbin/nologin
[...]

Each line in the /etc/passwd file represents a single user. The root user will be listed on the top. Each line contains seven attributes or fields separated by a colon without any spaces between each field. The name of the seven fields are given below:

1. name,
2. password,
3. user ID,
4. group ID,
5. gecos,
6. home directory,
7. shell.

1. Name

The "name" field is the user's login name that you use to login to your Linux box.

2. Password

The "password" field merely contains a letter X. Meaning - the password is encrypted and stored in a separate file called "/etc/shadow" for security purpose. The /etc/shadow can not be read by the normal users. Here the X indicates that the user has a password. If this field is empty, the user has no password, so he can login without password.

3. User ID

The "User ID" (or UID in short) indicates the user's unique numeric identification number. The root account's UID is 0 (zero). The numbers from 1 to 99 are reserved for system accounts. And the numbers starting from100 to 999 are reserved for normal users and groups.

4. Group ID

The "Group ID" (or GID in short) indicates the primary group identifier the user belongs to. The GID is usually the same as the UID.

5. Geckos

The "geckos" field contains the general information of a user. For example, It may contain the user's real name. This filed might be either empty separated by two colons or it might contain multiple entries separated by commas.

6. Home directory

The "home directory" field indicates the full path of the user's home directory, for example /home/sk. This is the directory that the user is first in when he logged into a system. The home directory usually contains programs and configurations files belonged to the user.

7. Shell

The last filed is "shell". It indicates the full path of the default shell for that user.

Now, let us take the following line as an example:

root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash

In the above line,

• root - is the user name,
• x - indicates the root user has password,
• 0 - The first 0 (zero) indicates the UID,
• 0 - The second zero indicates the GID,
• root - It indicates the real name of the user.
• /root - It is the home directory of the root user,
• /bin/bash - Default shell for root user.

Hope you get a basic idea about the /etc/passwd file. Now let us get back to our topic i.e listing all users in a Linux system.

List All Users In Linux

There are couple ways to list all users in a Linux system. Here I have included all possible ways.

1. List all users in Linux using cat command

As the names says, the cat command is generally used to concatenate files and print the contents of the files.

To list all users in a Linux system using cut command, run:

$ cat /etc/passwd

This command will list all available users

Sample output:

root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
daemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/usr/sbin/nologin
bin:x:2:2:bin:/bin:/usr/sbin/nologin
sys:x:3:3:sys:/dev:/usr/sbin/nologin
sync:x:4:65534:sync:/bin:/bin/sync
games:x:5:60:games:/usr/games:/usr/sbin/nologin
man:x:6:12:man:/var/cache/man:/usr/sbin/nologin
lp:x:7:7:lp:/var/spool/lpd:/usr/sbin/nologin
mail:x:8:8:mail:/var/mail:/usr/sbin/nologin
news:x:9:9:news:/var/spool/news:/usr/sbin/nologin
uucp:x:10:10:uucp:/var/spool/uucp:/usr/sbin/nologin
proxy:x:13:13:proxy:/bin:/usr/sbin/nologin
www-data:x:33:33:www-data:/var/www:/usr/sbin/nologin
backup:x:34:34:backup:/var/backups:/usr/sbin/nologin
list:x:38:38:Mailing List Manager:/var/list:/usr/sbin/nologin
irc:x:39:39:ircd:/var/run/ircd:/usr/sbin/nologin
gnats:x:41:41:Gnats Bug-Reporting System (admin):/var/lib/gnats:/usr/sbin/nologin
nobody:x:65534:65534:nobody:/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologin
systemd-network:x:100:102:systemd Network Management,,,:/run/systemd/netif:/usr/sbin/nologin
systemd-resolve:x:101:103:systemd Resolver,,,:/run/systemd/resolve:/usr/sbin/nologin
syslog:x:102:106::/home/syslog:/usr/sbin/nologin
messagebus:x:103:107::/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologin
_apt:x:104:65534::/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologin
uuidd:x:105:111::/run/uuidd:/usr/sbin/nologin
avahi-autoipd:x:106:112:Avahi autoip daemon,,,:/var/lib/avahi-autoipd:/usr/sbin/nologin
usbmux:x:107:46:usbmux daemon,,,:/var/lib/usbmux:/usr/sbin/nologin
dnsmasq:x:108:65534:dnsmasq,,,:/var/lib/misc:/usr/sbin/nologin
rtkit:x:109:114:RealtimeKit,,,:/proc:/usr/sbin/nologin
cups-pk-helper:x:110:116:user for cups-pk-helper service,,,:/home/cups-pk-helper:/usr/sbin/nologin
speech-dispatcher:x:111:29:Speech Dispatcher,,,:/var/run/speech-dispatcher:/bin/false
whoopsie:x:112:117::/nonexistent:/bin/false
kernoops:x:113:65534:Kernel Oops Tracking Daemon,,,:/:/usr/sbin/nologin
saned:x:114:119::/var/lib/saned:/usr/sbin/nologin
avahi:x:116:122:Avahi mDNS daemon,,,:/var/run/avahi-daemon:/usr/sbin/nologin
colord:x:117:123:colord colour management daemon,,,:/var/lib/colord:/usr/sbin/nologin
hplip:x:118:7:HPLIP system user,,,:/var/run/hplip:/bin/false
geoclue:x:119:124::/var/lib/geoclue:/usr/sbin/nologin
gnome-initial-setup:x:120:65534::/run/gnome-initial-setup/:/bin/false
gdm:x:121:125:Gnome Display Manager:/var/lib/gdm3:/bin/false
sk:x:1000:1000:sk,,,:/home/sk:/bin/bash
Debian-exim:x:122:128::/var/spool/exim4:/usr/sbin/nologin
pulse:x:115:120:PulseAudio daemon,,,:/var/run/pulse:/usr/sbin/nologin
systemd-timesync:x:123:127:systemd Time Synchronization,,,:/run/systemd:/usr/sbin/nologin
tss:x:124:131:TPM software stack,,,:/var/lib/tpm:/bin/false
tcpdump:x:125:132::/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologin
_flatpak:x:126:133:Flatpak system-wide installation helper,,,:/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologin
systemd-coredump:x:999:999:systemd Core Dumper:/:/usr/sbin/nologin

List all users in Linux using cat command

As I mentioned already, the first field in the above entries represents the users. If you don't want all fields but only display the user names, the following methods would help.

3. List users using cut command

The "cut" command is used to remove sections (or fields) from each line of files.

To list all users with cut command in a Linux system, run:

$ cut -d: -f1 /etc/passwd

This command will only display the user names from the /etc/passwd file and ignore all other fields.

Sample output:

root
daemon
bin
sys
sync
games
man
lp
mail
news
uucp
proxy
www-data
backup
list
irc
gnats
nobody
systemd-network
systemd-resolve
syslog
messagebus
_apt
uuidd
avahi-autoipd
usbmux
dnsmasq
rtkit
cups-pk-helper
speech-dispatcher
whoopsie
kernoops
saned
avahi
colord
hplip
geoclue
gnome-initial-setup
gdm
sk
Debian-exim
pulse
systemd-timesync
tss
tcpdump
_flatpak
systemd-coredump

List all users in Linux using cut command

4. Print users in Linux with awk command

We can also use "awk" command to list all users in Linux.

$ awk -F':' '{ print $1}' /etc/passwd

This command will also display only the users and omit all other details.

List all users in Linux using awk command

5. View list of users with compgen

Compgen is BASH built-in to  manipulate the programmable completion facilities.

To list all users using compgen, run:

$ compgen -u

6. Display all users using getent command

Another way to list the users in Linux is to use "getent" command like below:

$ getent passwd

This command will read the /etc/passwd file and lists all users in that file.

List all users in Linux using awk command

One notable advantage of getent command is it not only lists the users in the /etc/passwd file but all users in all configured userdb backends, for example LDAP, on a given system.

7. List users using the "more" or "less" commands

The more and less commands are used to open a given file for interactive reading, allowing scrolling and search.

To print all users using more or less command, run:

$ more /etc/passwd

Or,

$ less /etc/passwd

Related read:

• How To List The Members Of A Group In Linux
• How To Find Currently Logged In Users In Linux
• How To Monitor User Activity In Linux
• How To Limit User’s Access To The Linux System
• The Difference Between more, less And most Commands
• How To Add, Delete And Grant Sudo Privileges To Users In Ubuntu
• How To Find Out Which Groups A User Belongs To In Linux
• The Right Way To Edit /etc/passwd And /etc/group Files In Linux

Hope this helps.