In this article we will see how to find the UID (User Identifier) and GID (Group Identifier) of a user of a Debian, Ubuntu or CentOS Linux system.
User ID
A UID is a user ID, a number assigned by Linux to each user on the system. This number allows the system to identify the user. UIDs are stored in the directory /etc/passwd.
Group ID
A Linux user also has groups, identifiable by their GID. Groups are stored in the file /etc/groups :
Find the UID and GID of a user
To find your own UID or GID, enter the command:
id
The command will return a result like this, with the UID and GID:
uid=0(root) gid=0(root) groupes=0(root)
To find the credentials of a user other than yourself, you must specify the user's name as the first argument to the command.
id root