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ID(1) General Commands Manual ID(1) NAME id -- return user identity SYNOPSIS id [user] id -A id -G [-n] [user] id -M id -P [user] id -c id -d [user] id -g [-nr] [user] id -p [user] id -s [user] id -u [-nr] [user] DESCRIPTION The id utility displays the user and group names and numeric IDs, of the calling process, to the standard output. If the real and effective IDs are different, both are displayed, otherwise only the real ID is displayed. If a user (login name or user ID) is specified, the user and group IDs of that user are displayed. In this case, the real and effective IDs are as- sumed to be the same. The options are as follows: -A Display the process audit user ID and other process audit proper- ties, which requires privilege. -G Display the different group IDs (effective, real and supplementary) as white-space separated numbers, in no particular order. -M Display the MAC label of the current process. -P Display the id as a password file entry. -a Ignored for compatibility with other id implementations. -c Display current login class. -d Display the home directory of the current or specified user. -g Display the effective group ID as a number. -n Display the name of the user or group ID for the -G, -g and -u op- tions instead of the number. If any of the ID numbers cannot be mapped into names, the number will be displayed as usual. -p Make the output human-readable. If the user name returned by get- login(2) is different from the login name referenced by the user ID, the name returned by getlogin(2) is displayed, preceded by the keyword "login". The user ID as a name is displayed, preceded by the keyword "uid". If the effective user ID is different from the real user ID, the real user ID is displayed as a name, preceded by the keyword "euid". If the effective group ID is different from the real group ID, the real group ID is displayed as a name, pre- ceded by the keyword "rgid". The list of groups to which the user belongs is then displayed as names, preceded by the keyword "groups". Each display is on a separate line. -r Display the real ID for the -g and -u options instead of the effec- tive ID. -s Display the shell of the current or specified user. -u Display the effective user ID as a number. EXIT STATUS The id utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs. EXAMPLES Show information for the user `bob' as a password file entry: $ id -P bob bob:*:0:0::0:0:Robert:/bob:/usr/local/bin/bash Same output as groups(1)for the root user: $ id -Gn root wheel operator Show human readable information about `alice': $ id -p alice uid alice groups alice webcamd vboxusers Assuming the user `bob' executed "su -l" to simulate a root login, compare the result of the following commands: # id -un root # who am i bob pts/5 Dec 4 19:51 SEE ALSO groups(1), who(1), groups(7) STANDARDS The id utility is expected to conform to IEEE Std 1003.1-2024 ("POSIX.1"). The -A, -M, -P, -c, -d, -p, and -s options are FreeBSD extensions. HISTORY The historic groups(1) command is equivalent to "id -Gn [user]". The historic whoami(1) command is equivalent to "id -un". The id command appeared in 4.4BSD. FreeBSD ports 15.1 April 19, 2026 ID(1)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | EXIT STATUS | EXAMPLES | SEE ALSO | STANDARDS | HISTORY
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