[SOLVED] How to set the password for a new created in bash user using awk

Issue

Need some help in assigning a password to each newly created user from a text file using awk.

For example:

Text file:

John Doe 12345678

Jane Doe 87654321

Newly created user:

JDoe5678 with password: 12345678

JDoe4321 with password: 87654321

My current code:

#!/bin/bash

PATH_EMPLOYEE_FILE="employeelist"
password=($(awk '{print {print $3}))}' "${PATH_EMPLOYEE_FILE}"))
groupname="group1"

USERS_LIST=($(awk '{print substr($1,1,1) $2 substr($3,length($3)-3,length($3))}' "${PATH_EMPLOYEE_FILE}"))

for USER in "${USERS_LIST[@]}"
do
    echo "User account created: ${USER}"
    useradd -m -G "${groupname}" "${USER}" -p ${password}
done

Solution

You're not indexing $password, so you're always using the first password in the useradd command.

There's no need for awk or arrays, you can use bash's read command, and its parameter expansion operators to extract parts of the first name and password into the username.

while read -r fname lname password; do
    username=${fname:0:1}$lname${password: -4} # don't forget the space before -4
    echo "User account created: $username"
    useradd -m -G "$groupname" "$username" -p "$password"
done < "$PATH_EMPLOYEE_FILE"

Answered By - Barmar