Introduction

Here is a solution that allows you to easily migrate Linux accounts to BSD. The only constraint is that you must not have two identical logins or identifiers after this migration.

Linux

Commands to execute (as root) on your Linux machine for exporting:

  • Gathering data from /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow files:
  pwunconv
  • Transforming the /etc/passwd file to be usable by BSD systems (grep -v ‘root|daemon’ excludes root and daemon users):
  cat /etc/passwd | grep -v '^root\|^daemon' | awk -F: '{printf("%s:%s:%s:%s::0:0:%s:%s:%s\n", $1,$2,$3,$4,$5,$6,$7);}' > ~/linux_passwd
  • Separate the data from /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow again:
  pwconv

BSD

Retrieve the generated file on your BSD system, then for importing:

  • Add the content of the linux_passwd file to the end of /etc/master.passwd:
  cat linux_passwd >> /etc/master.passwd
  • Regenerate the /etc/pwd.db and /etc/spwd.db files:
  pwd_mkdb -p /etc/master.passwd
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Last updated 23 Nov 2007, 11:16 +0200. history