Sorting /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow files Sorting /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow files [root@server~]# cd /root/ [root@server~]# touch passwd.sorted shadow.sorted [root@server~]# chmod 644 passwd.sorted [root@server~]# chmod 600 shadow.sorted [root@server~]# sort -t: -n -k3,3 /etc/passwd >passwd.sorted [root@server~]# gawk -F: '{system("grep \"^" $1 ":\" /etc/shadow")}' passwd.sorted >shadow.sorted [root@server~]# wc /etc/shadow shadow.sorted 211 211 10985 /etc/shadow 211 211 10985 shadow.sorted 422 422 21970 total [root@server~]# wc /etc/passwd passwd.sorted 211 413 11881 /etc/passwd 211 413 11881 passwd.sorted 422 826 23762 total [root@server~]# cp -a /etc/passwd /root/passwd.