[chef] Check if a user exists?

[Alexander Skwar < >]

Hello

We're using an IPA server to store user accounts and such and Ubuntu clients with FreeIPA to access this. I would now like to do something, based on the existence of a user account in IPA.

How can I check if a user exists?

On Stack Overflow, I found this:

Ohai queries the users on the system for you:

if node['etc']['passwd']['random']
  # Do deploy
end




But this only works with local accounts; it does not work with accounts in IPA. In our nsswitch.conf, there's:

$ grep passwd /etc/nsswitch.conf 

passwd:         files sss

With getent, I can query accounts.

$ getent passwd ask

ask:*:10000:10000:Alexander Skwar:/home/ask:/usr/bin/zsh

$ getent passwd example-does-not-exist

$ getent passwd local

local:x:1000:1000::/home/local:/bin/zsh

"ask" is stored in IPA; "example-does-not-exist" is a non-existant account; "local" is a user from /etc/passwd.

But "node['etc']['passwd']['ask']" is "nil". And "node['etc']['passwd']['local']" is not nil.

How can I check if a user exists? Do I really have to resort to calling getent?

Thanks,

Alexander