Find logged on user and network home directory with a bash script

Question

I am trying to use a script to find the username and home directory of the user that is currently logged on to a Mac. This is what I have, and it works, but is there a better (i.e. simpler) way to do it?

user=`logname`
userHome="eval echo ~`echo $user`"
userHome=`$userHome`

The script will almost definitely not be run by the logged on user.

This is Mac OS X 10.6, joined to an Active Directory, and a network user is logged on. So the username does not appear in /etc/passwd.

Answer 1

This script:

#!/bin/bash
w -h | sort -u -t' ' -k1,1 | while read user etc
do
  homedir=$(dscl . -read /Users/$user NFSHomeDirectory | cut -d' ' -f2)
  echo =$user= =$homedir=
done

will do the following:

• find all users logged in (via ssh too!) w -h or can use the who command too
• sort and find unique users sort -u -t' ' -k1,1
• for each logged user
  • read username
  • find his home directory from the DirectoryService daemon via the command dscl
  • print out username and his home directory

Answer 2

The user is stored in a variable USER, and the home is in HOME:

echo user name: $USER, user home: $HOME

This is done automatically. You don't have to write any script to get them.

Answer 3

From this Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide I learned that

The $(...) form has superseded backticks for command substitution.

The $(...) form of command substitution permits nesting.

Now I am using:

user=$(logname)
userHome=$(eval echo ~$(echo $user))

Answer 4

Assuming logname works, then you can get the home directory like this:

user=$(logname)
userHome=$(awk -F: -v u=$user '$1 == u {print $6}' /etc/passwd)

Answer 5

Not sure if all the other complications are needed.

echo $USER
echo ~