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I have a project that consists of adding users to the OS and these users are in a text file. I have written this so far but it isn't working, telling me useradd isn't working properly. Can you tell me what's wrong?

The content of the file user.txt is:

charbel:password:1001:1001:Charbel Haddad:/home/charbel:/bin/bash:0:30:15:7:y
assil:p@ssw0rd:1002:1002:Assil:/home/assel:/bin/bash:0:30:10:5:n
marwan:p@ssw0rd:1003:1003:Marwan Ghantous:/home/marwan:/bin/bash:0:50:30:7:n
michel:password:1004:1004:Michel:/home/michel:/bin/bash:1:30:10:5:y

Script:

FILE="user.txt"

USERNAME=$(cut -d ":" -f 1 $FILE)
PASSWORD=$(cut -d ":" -f 2 $FILE)
USER_ID=$(cut -d ":" -f 3 $FILE)
GROUP_ID=$(cut -d ":" -f 4 $FILE)
USER_INFO=$(cut -d ":" -f 5 $FILE)
HOME_DIRECTORY=$(cut -d ":" -f 6 $FILE)
SHELL=$(cut -d " " -f 7 $FILE)
MIN=$(cut -d ":" -f 8 $FILE)
MAX=$(cut -d ":" -f 9 $FILE)
INACTIVE=$(cut -d ":" -f 10 $FILE)
WARNING=$(cut -d ":" -f 11 $FILE)

useradd -m -c "${USERNAME}" "${PASSWORD}" "${USER_ID}" "${GROUP_ID}" "${USER_INFO}" "${HOME_DIRECTORY}" "${SHELL}" "${MIN}" "${MAX}" "${INACTIVE}" "${WARNING}"
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    Please edit your question and add more details. The problem description "it isn't working" is not sufficient. Please show the actual output or error message and the expected output and/or describe what you want to happen and what happens instead. You have to read the file line-by-line. The cut commands will print the whole column. Commented Dec 15, 2020 at 9:58
  • There is a similar question with the same error in the code: stackoverflow.com/q/65303035/10622916 Commented Dec 15, 2020 at 9:59

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The question looks like homework/assignment, that's why I don't show a full solution here.

There is a nearly identical question https://stackoverflow.com/q/65303035/10622916.

The script in the question does not process individual lines of the input file. You need a loop that reads and processes a single line in every cycle.

The cut commands as used in the question will assign all values from the specified column to the variable, e.g. all usernames separated by whitespace like

USERNAME="charbel assil marwan michel"

If you would process a single line only, using multiple cut commands will work but is inefficient.

For examples how to process a file line-by-line and assign the input fields to individual variables, read https://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ/001. There are examples how to process fields separated by colons and what to do if the input may contain more fields than you need.

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