# User Account Setup - Multiple OS's **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [May 20, 2006, 2:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/user-account-setup-multiple-oss/61119 "2006-05-20T14:38:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Paul\_DSKraus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@Paul\_DSKraus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Paul_DSKraus)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2006, 2:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/user-account-setup-multiple-oss/61119/1 "2006-05-20T14:38:27Z")
I am learning ruby and have a background in perl. As my first project and to help me get my head around ruby I want to create a useradmin script that will let me do the following. - Remotely create a domain user on a windows 2000 server - Remotely create a user on a sco openserver box - Remotely create a directory on Linux - remotely create a user on Linux - remotely append to the smb.conf on Linux - Login into or webmail admin page and create a new email user - Remotely add mac address to a squid access list - remotely restart squid From input(gui at a later time, from command line switches now): user’s full name user’s password username switch for add and a switch for remove New hire starts at company type one command from their new workstation and have it set them up with all of their accounts. Obviously having some kind of decent directory service in place and single sign on would help elevate this problem but on my task list it seems to never get to the top. PLUS I think this will be a great exercise in learning a lot about ruby. So what I would like from you is not to tell me how but to point on some of the modules(if that’s what they are called in ruby) that will help me get this task done. Help me get past the hurdle of what ruby tools I should use so that I can dig into the documents for those modules and code it on my own. New to OO thinking so I am going to be fighting a desire to write this procedurally but the idea is to have some kind of user object that would handle all of this. Maybe a basic user object and then a sub class of user for accounts. _shurg_ I have no idea like I said I am just jumping into the deep end here. Your thoughts are always appreciated. Paul Kraus OH yeah the script (at least how i see it) would be sitting out on a samba share on a Linux machine but being run on the actual workstation that the new hire will be using. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_DSKraus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@Paul\_DSKraus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Paul_DSKraus)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 3:23am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/user-account-setup-multiple-oss/61119/2 "2006-05-22T03:23:33Z")
On 5/20/06, Paul D. Kraus [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I am learning ruby and have a background in perl. > As my first project and to help me get my head around ruby I want to > create > a useradmin script that will let me do the following. From the lack of responses I am getting the feeling that maybe ruby isn’t the best tool for this. If this is the case please point me to the right tools. Paul ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_DSKraus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@Paul\_DSKraus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Paul_DSKraus)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 5:07am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/user-account-setup-multiple-oss/61119/3 "2006-05-23T05:07:27Z")
On Mon, May 22, 2006 at 10:23:08AM +0900, Paul D. Kraus wrote: > Paul Ruby is very well suited for this, if that is the only answer to you care for. I guess lack of response has more to do with people beeing unwilling to do your homework, though. Try breaking it up and ask for specific problems instead. Jürgen ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_DSKraus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@Paul\_DSKraus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Paul_DSKraus)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 1:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/user-account-setup-multiple-oss/61119/4 "2006-05-23T13:09:47Z")
> I guess lack of response has more to do with people beeing unwilling > to do your homework, though. Try breaking it up and ask for specific > problems instead. > > I don’t think i was asking for “my homework” to get done. In fact was > asking for just the oppsite. Just for suggested modules that other > people > had done. _shrug_ at any rate lets try this approach. Does ruby have something comparable to CPAN for seaching/installing modules? ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_DSKraus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@Paul\_DSKraus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Paul_DSKraus)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 1:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/user-account-setup-multiple-oss/61119/5 "2006-05-23T13:22:00Z")
Umm, maybe [http://raa.ruby-lang.org/](http://raa.ruby-lang.org/) j`ey http://code.eachmapinject.com/j`ey.rb[http://code.eachmapinject.com/j`ey.rb](http://code.eachmapinject.com/j%60ey.rb) ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_DSKraus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@Paul\_DSKraus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Paul_DSKraus)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 4:03am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/user-account-setup-multiple-oss/61119/6 "2006-05-22T04:03:10Z")
On 5/20/06, Paul D. Kraus [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I am learning ruby and have a background in perl. > As my first project and to help me get my head around ruby I want to create > a useradmin script that will let me do the following. > > - Remotely create a domain user on a windows 2000 server See Win32API or other windows related libraries. > - Remotely create a user on a sco openserver box > - Remotely create a directory on Linux > - remotely create a user on Linux > - remotely append to the smb.conf on Linux All the above can probably be done with Net::SSH: [http://net-ssh.rubyforge.org/](http://net-ssh.rubyforge.org/) > - Login into or webmail admin page and create a new email user Could be done with WWW:Mechanize (gem install mechanize) > - Remotely add mac address to a squid access list > - remotely restart squid Probably Net::SSH again. > From input(gui at a later time, from command line switches now): > user’s full name > user’s password > username > switch for add and a switch for remove See optparse ([http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib/libdoc/optparse/rdoc/index.html](http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib/libdoc/optparse/rdoc/index.html)) or cmdparse ([http://cmdparse.rubyforge.org/](http://cmdparse.rubyforge.org/)) or commandline (gem install commandline, [http://rubyforge.org/projects/optionparser/](http://rubyforge.org/projects/optionparser/)) > New to OO thinking so I am going to be fighting a desire to write this > procedurally but the idea is to have some kind of user object that would > handle all of this. I would suggest writing it procedurally if that is what you are comfortable with, and then objectifying it later. I was born and raised on OO, but with Ruby I almost always start with just coding something quick and then making objects. That is one of the benefits of Ruby: rapid prototyping. > OH yeah the script (at least how i see it) would be sitting out on a samba > share on a Linux machine but being run on the actual workstation that the > new hire will be using. This should not be a problem as long as the script looks like a file to Ruby. Ryan ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_DSKraus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@Paul\_DSKraus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Paul_DSKraus)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 2:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/user-account-setup-multiple-oss/61119/7 "2006-05-23T14:37:15Z")
On 5/23/06, Joey [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Umm, maybe [http://raa.ruby-lang.org/](http://raa.ruby-lang.org/) > > j`ey http://code.eachmapinject.com/j`ey.rb\< > [http://code.eachmapinject.com/j`ey.rb](http://code.eachmapinject.com/j%60ey.rb)\> Exactly what I was looking for thanks. Any good newbie faq’s? Not really on the programming side of things but more on the supplemental tools such as the one you just gave me or good places to find online docs. Oh and the biggest one… What the heck is GEM. Why do scripts have both require and import statements? This way I quit hitting the list with things that have probably been covered to death. TIA, Paul ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_DSKraus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@Paul\_DSKraus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Paul_DSKraus)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 3:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/user-account-setup-multiple-oss/61119/8 "2006-05-23T15:04:41Z")
Paul D. Kraus wrote: > On 5/23/06, Joey [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > Umm, maybe [http://raa.ruby-lang.org/](http://raa.ruby-lang.org/) > > > > j`ey http://code.eachmapinject.com/j`ey.rb\< > > [http://code.eachmapinject.com/j`ey.rb](http://code.eachmapinject.com/j%60ey.rb)\> > > Exactly what I was looking for thanks. Any good newbie faq’s? Not really > on > the programming side of things but more on the supplemental tools such > as > the one you just gave me or good places to find online docs. > > Oh and the biggest one… What the heck is GEM. > > Why do scripts have both require and import statements? > > This way I quit hitting the list with things that have probably been > covered > to death. > > TIA, > Paul The standard reference for Ruby is the “Pickaxe” book, i.e. Programming Ruby, 2nd Ed. ([https://pragprog.com/titles/ruby/programming-ruby-2nd-edition/](http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/titles/ruby/index.html)). This book has answers to all your questions. The 1st edition is dated but still quite useful and is available online here: [http://www.rubycentral.com/book/](http://www.rubycentral.com/book/). This one explains the difference between require and include. You can read about “gems” (RubyGems) here: [http://docs.rubygems.org/](http://docs.rubygems.org/) ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_DSKraus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@Paul\_DSKraus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Paul_DSKraus)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 3:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/user-account-setup-multiple-oss/61119/9 "2006-05-23T15:09:18Z")
Le 23 mai 06, à 08:36, Paul D. Kraus a écrit : > On 5/23/06, Joey [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > Umm, maybe [http://raa.ruby-lang.org/](http://raa.ruby-lang.org/) > > > > j`ey http://code.eachmapinject.com/j`ey.rb\< > > [http://code.eachmapinject.com/j`ey.rb](http://code.eachmapinject.com/j%60ey.rb)\> I would add [http://www.rubyforge.net](http://www.rubyforge.net) > Exactly what I was looking for thanks. Any good newbie faq’s? Not > really on > the programming side of things but more on the supplemental tools such > as > the one you just gave me or good places to find online docs. > > Oh and the biggest one… What the heck is GEM. Ruby package management. Many libraries/program are distributed with gem. Look for RubyGems on rubyforge. > Why do scripts have both require and import statements? ‘require’ loads a file in your interpreter. ‘import’, don’t know what that is. Are you talking about ‘include’? You may want to look at [www.ruby-doc.org](http://www.ruby-doc.org). In particular the Pickaxe (“Programming Ruby”) and the standard library documentation. And if it was installed properly on your system, ‘ri’ is very handy: ## [gus@hibernatus ~]$ ri require --------------------------------------------------------- Kernel#require require(string) =\> true or false ``` Ruby tries to load the library named _string_, returning +true+ if successful. If the filename does not resolve to an absolute path, it will be searched for in the directories listed in +$:+. If the file has the extension ``.rb'', it is loaded as a source file; if the extension is ``.so'', ``.o'', or ``.dll'', or whatever the default shared library extension is on the current platform, Ruby loads the shared library as a Ruby extension. Otherwise, Ruby ``` tries adding `.rb'', `.so’‘, and so on to the name. The name of the loaded feature is added to the array in +$“+. A feature will not be loaded if it’s name already appears in +$”+. However, the file name is not converted to an absolute path, so that ``+require ‘a’;require ‘./a’+’’ will load +a.rb+ twice. ``` require "my-library.rb" require "db-driver" ``` ‘fxri’ on rubyforge is good also. HTH, Guillaume.