Beginners Guide for ID Command in Linux

As a beginner in the world of Linux, there are many commands and tools that you will come across when using the operating system. One of the most commonly used commands is the id command, which allows you to view user and group information on a Linux system. In this article, we will provide a beginner’s guide to using the id command in Linux.

The id command is a command-line utility that is used to display information about a user or group on a Linux system. It shows the real and effective user and group IDs, as well as any supplementary groups that the user belongs to. This information can be useful for system administrators and users who need to manage permissions and access control on a Linux system.

To use the id command, simply open up a terminal window on your Linux system and type id followed by the username or group name that you want to query. For example, if you want to view information about the user john, you would type id john and press Enter. The command will then display the user ID, group ID, and any supplementary group IDs for the user john.

If you want to view information about your own user account, you can simply type id without any arguments. This will display the information for the current user logged in to the system.

In addition to viewing information about a specific user or group, the id command also has some options that you can use to customize the output. For example, you can use the -u option to display only the user ID, the -g option to display only the group ID, and the -G option to display a list of all supplementary group IDs.

Another useful option is the -n option, which displays the username and group name instead of the numeric IDs. This can make the output easier to read and understand for beginners who may not be familiar with the numeric IDs used by Linux systems.

Overall, the id command is a simple but powerful tool that can be very useful for managing user and group information on a Linux system. By following this beginner’s guide, you can quickly learn how to use the id command and take advantage of its features to help you better understand and manage user permissions and access control on your Linux system.