Where, in Ubuntu's files, is stored the full name of a user?

Question

Usually the users have a full name associated to them, where is that stored?

Answer 1

The full names are stored in /etc/passwd.

On the command line you can change it using the command chfn (needs sudo if you want to change other user's names).

Answer 2

An extension of sboda's answer, extracting only the full name and encapsulating a function. Shows the full name of any user, or by default the current user.

full_user_name() { getent passwd "${1:-$USER}" | cut -d: -f5 | cut -d, -f1; }

Testing:

$ full_user_name
Rodrigo Silva
$ full_user_name gdm
Gnome Display Manager

Answer 3

Or if you would like to see the full name of only one user, than you could use:

getent passwd $user_name