.\" $OpenBSD: adduser.8,v 1.38 2005/04/25 07:42:10 jmc Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 1995-1996 Wolfram Schneider . Berlin. .\" All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" $From: adduser.8,v 1.12 1996/08/28 17:54:13 adam Exp $ .Dd July 8, 1999 .Dt ADDUSER 8 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm adduser , .Nm rmuser .Nd add and delete users from the system .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm adduser .Bk -words .Oo Fl batch Ar username .Oo Ar group Ns Op , Ns Ar group .Ar ... .Oc .Op Ar fullname .Op Ar password .Oc .Op Fl check_only .Op Fl class Ar login_class .Op Fl config_create .Op Fl dotdir Ar directory .Oo .Fl e .Ar method | Fl encryption Ar method .Oc .Op Fl group Ar login_group .Op Fl h | help | \&? .Op Fl home Ar partition .Op Fl message Ar file .Op Fl noconfig .Op Fl shell Ar shell .Op Fl s | silent | q | quiet .Op Fl uid_start Ar uid .Op Fl uid_end Ar uid .Op Fl v | verbose .Op Fl unencrypted .Ek .Pp .Nm rmuser .Op Ar username .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm adduser program adds new users to the system. The .Nm rmuser program removes users from the system. When not passed any arguments, both utilities operate in interactive mode and prompt for any required information. .Pp The options are as follows: .Bl -tag -width Ds .It Xo Fl batch Ar username .Oo Ar group Ns Op , Ns Ar group .Ar ... Oc .Op Ar fullname .Op Ar password .Xc Enter batch mode in which multiple users are specified on the command-line in a compact format. By default the password is assumed to already be properly encrypted. .It Fl check_only Check the passwd, group, and shells databases for consistency and problems then exit without performing any other operation. .It Fl class Ar login_class Use the specified .Ar login_class as the default user login class. See .Xr login.conf 5 for further details. .It Fl config_create Create or edit default configuration information and message file before proceeding with the normal interactive adduser procedure. .It Fl dotdir Ar directory Copy files from .Ar directory into the HOME directory of new users. Files named in the fashion of .Dq Pa dot.foo will be renamed to .Dq Pa .foo . By default, all files are made writable and readable by their owner. .\" don't allow group or world to write files and allow only owner .\" to read/execute/write .rhost, .Xauthority, .kermrc, .netrc, Mail, .\" prv, iscreen, term. .It Fl encryption , e Ar method Encrypt local passwords using .Ar method of encryption as described in .Xr login.conf 5 . If .Ar method is .Dq auto , the encryption type will be derived from the user's login class. .It Fl group Ar login_group Specify the default login group. A value of .Ar USER means that the username is to be used as the login group. .It Fl help , h , \&? Print a summary of options and exit. .It Fl home Ar partition Specify the default home partition where all users' home directories are to be located. .It Fl message Ar file Send new users a welcome message from .Ar file . Specifying a value of .Dq no for .Ar file causes no message to be sent to new users. .It Fl noconfig Do not read the default configuration file. .It Fl shell Ar shell Specify the default shell for new users. .It Xo .Fl silent , s , .Fl quiet , q .Xc Causes the program to print fewer warnings, questions, and bug reports. .It Fl uid_start Ar uid Use UIDs from .Ar uid up when automatically generating UIDs. .It Fl uid_end Ar uid Do not use UIDs higher than .Ar uid when generating UIDs. .It Fl unencrypted Causes the program to assume that the password given in batch mode is unencrypted. The password will be encrypted before being added to the password file. Use of this option is discouraged, as the username and cleartext password will appear in the process list, which is visible to users. .It Fl verbose , v Causes the program to print many warnings and questions. This option is recommended for novice users. .El .Pp .Nm adduser first performs consistency checks on the password, group, and shell databases. This includes finding any duplicate user or group names, illegal shells, or shells that aren't executable. Once these tests are passed, .Nm performs the following operations for each new user: .Bl -enum -offset indent .It Add the appropriate entries to the password and group files and re-generate the password database using .Xr pwd_mkdb 8 . .It Create a home directory and copy all files from the skeletal login directory (normally .Pa /etc/skel ) to this new directory. Files named in the fashion of .Dq Pa dot.foo will be renamed to .Dq Pa .foo in the new directory. .It Mails the new user a welcome message at the discretion of the account creator. .El .Pp Similarly, when removing a user, .Nm rmuser performs the following operations for the given .Ar username : .Bl -enum -offset indent .It Removes any .Xr crontab 1 entries or .Xr at 1 jobs belonging to the user. .It Removes the user from the password database and all groups in the group database. If a group becomes empty and its name is the same as the username, the group is removed (this complements .Nm adduser Ns 's unique per-user groups). .It Recursively deletes all files in the user's home directory and removes the directory itself (provided the directory actually belongs to the user). .Nm rmuser prompts for confirmation before actually doing this. .It Removes the user's incoming mail file if one exists. .El .Pp Understandably, .Nm rmuser politely refuses to remove users whose UID is 0 (typically root). .Sh RESTRICTIONS .Bl -tag -width Ds .It Sy username It is recommended that login names contain only lowercase characters and digits. They may also contain uppercase characters, non-leading hyphens, periods, underscores, and a trailing .Ql $ . Login names may not be longer than 31 characters. .\" The reasons for this limit are "Historical". .\" Given that people have traditionally wanted to break this .\" limit for aesthetic reasons, it's never been of great importance to break .\" such a basic fundamental parameter in UNIX. .\" You can change UT_NAMESIZE in /usr/include/utmp.h and recompile the .\" world; people have done this and it works, but you will have problems .\" with any precompiled programs, or source that assumes the 8-character .\" name limit and NIS. The NIS protocol mandates an 8-character username. If you need a longer login name for e-mail addresses, you can define an alias in .Pa /etc/mail/aliases . .It Sy fullname This should contain the user's first name and surname. The .Ql \&: is not permitted. .It Sy login_class The specified user login class must exist in .Pa /etc/login.conf . .It Sy shell Only valid entries from the .Xr shells 5 database or entries corresponding to .Xr sliplogin 8 and .Xr pppd 8 are permitted. .It Sy uid_start This value is the start of the range where free UID values are searched for. This value must be less than the value of uid_end. The default value is 1000 or as configured in the configuration file. .It Sy uid_end This value is the end of the range where free UID values are searched for. This value must be more than the value of uid_start. The default value is 2147483647 or as configured in the configuration file. .It Sy gid/login group This value is generated automatically, but can be specified at the discretion of the person invoking the program. .It Sy password If not empty, the password is encrypted according to .Xr login.conf 5 . If empty, the account will be automatically disabled to prevent spurious access to it. .El .\" .Sh UNIQUE GROUP .\" Perhaps you're missing what *can* be done with this scheme that falls apart .\" with most other schemes. With each user in his/her own group the user can .\" safely run with a umask of 002 and have files created in their home .\" directory and not worry about others being able to read them. .\" .\" For a shared area you create a separate uid/gid (like cvs or ncvs on .\" freefall) you place each person that should be able to access this area .\" into that new group. .\" .\" This model of uid/gid administration allows far greater flexibility than .\" lumping users into groups and having to muck with the umask when working .\" in a shared area. .\" .\" I have been using this model for almost 10 years and found that it works .\" for most situations, and has never gotten in the way. (Rod Grimes) .Sh CONFIGURATION .Nm follows these steps to extract its configuration information: .Pp .Bl -enum -offset indent -compact .It Read internal variables. .It Read configuration file .Pq Pa /etc/adduser.conf . .It Parse command-line options. .El .Pp The .Em adduser.conf format is explained within that file and is quite straightforward. .\" .Sh FORMAT .\" .Bl -tag -width Ds -compact .\" .Ql Pa # .\" is a comment. .\" .P .\" .It Sy config file .\" .Nm adduser .\" reads and writes this file. .\" See /etc/adduser.conf for more details. .\" .It Sy message file .\" Eval variables in this file. See /etc/adduser.message for more .\" details. .\" .El .Sh FILES .Bl -tag -width /etc/adduser.messageX -compact .It Pa /etc/master.passwd user database .It Pa /etc/group group database .It Pa /etc/shells shell database .It Pa /etc/ptmp lock file for the passwd database .It Pa /etc/adduser.conf configuration file for .Nm adduser .It Pa /etc/adduser.message message file for .Nm .It Pa /etc/skel skeletal login directory .It Pa /var/log/adduser log file for .Nm .El .Sh EXAMPLES Start .Nm in interactive mode: .Pp .Dl # adduser .Pp Create user .Dq falken and login group .Dq falken . Invite user .Dq falken into groups .Dq guest , .Dq staff , and .Dq beer . Realname (fullname) is .Dq Prof. Falken . Password is .Dq joshua (don't use such a password!). Send user falken a welcome message: .Pp .Dl "# adduser -batch falken guest,staff,beer 'Prof. Falken' joshua" .Pp Create user .Dq vehlefanz in login group .Dq guest . Start the free UID search at 5000. No other groups, no realname, no password. Do not send a welcome message: .Pp .Dl "# adduser -uid_start 5000 -group guest -message no -batch vehlefanz" .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr chpass 1 , .Xr finger 1 , .Xr passwd 1 , .Xr setlogin 2 , .Xr aliases 5 , .Xr group 5 , .Xr login.conf 5 , .Xr passwd 5 , .Xr shells 5 , .Xr nologin 8 , .Xr pwd_mkdb 8 , .Xr vipw 8 , .Xr yp 8