Migrating User Home Folders

Today at work I developed a script to migrate users to a new home folder. This was done with automation in mind – every user will now have the same home folder name (but individual RealNames) so that scripts can be deployed without individual customization.

The script looks like this at time of posting:

#!/bin/sh
# Creator: Taylor Price
# Contact: tayworm@gmail.com
# Website: drpebcak.svbtle.com
#      github.com/drpebcak


# Please run as root.
# This script is meant to migrate an existing user to a new home folder as painlessly as possible.

# Set Current shortname variable
E=""

#set Target shortname variable
F=""

# Copies current home folder to new location
ditto /Users/"$E" /Users/"$F"

# Reads UniqueID and saves value to $A
A=$(dscl . -read /Users/"$E" UniqueID)
# Takes $A and shaves off everything but the 3 digit UniqueID and saves to $B
B=$(echo $A | tail -c 5)
# Reads RealName and saves vaule to $C
C=$(dscl . -read /Users/"$E" RealName)
# Takes $C and cuts off 'RealName:' and saves remainder to $D
D=$(echo $C | cut -f2 -d":")

# This section deletes the old user and removes the old home folder
dscl . -delete /Users/$E
rm -rf /Users/$E


# Creates new User and sets vital attributes
dscl . -create /Users/"$F"
dscl . -create /Users/"$F" NFSHomeDirectory /Users/"$F"
dscl . -create /Users/"$F" UserShell /bin/bash
dscl . -create /Users/"$F" RealName "$D"
dscl . -create /Users/"$F" UniqueID "$B"
# Makes standard User
dscl . -create /Users/"$F" PrimaryGroup staff
dscl . -create /Users/"$F" PrimaryGroupID 80
# Set user password to 'temp'
dscl . -passwd /Users/"$F" "temp"
# To make Admin, uncomment this next line:
# dscl . -append /Groups/admin GroupMembership "$F"

Pretty self-explanatory I think.

Here’s a link to it on git: https://github.com/drpebcak/scripts/blob/master/change_home_dir.sh