.\" $OpenBSD: useradd.8,v 1.27 2009/01/21 16:56:03 sobrado Exp $ .\" $NetBSD: useradd.8,v 1.26 2003/02/25 10:36:21 wiz Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 1999 Alistair G. Crooks. 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. .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software .\" must display the following acknowledgement: .\" This product includes software developed by Alistair G. Crooks. .\" 4. The name of the author may not be used to endorse or promote .\" products derived from this software without specific prior written .\" permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``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 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. .\" .\" .Dd $Mdocdate: January 21 2009 $ .Dt USERADD 8 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm useradd .Nd add a user to the system .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm useradd .Bk -words .Fl D .Op Fl b Ar base-directory .Op Fl e Ar expiry-time .Op Fl f Ar inactive-time .Oo .Fl g Ar gid | name | Li =uid Oc .Op Fl k Ar skel-directory .Op Fl L Ar login-class .Oo .Fl r Ar low Ns Li .. Ns Ar high .Oc .Op Fl s Ar shell .Ek .Nm useradd .Bk -words .Op Fl mov .Op Fl b Ar base-directory .Op Fl c Ar comment .Op Fl d Ar home-directory .Op Fl e Ar expiry-time .Op Fl f Ar inactive-time .Op Fl G Ar secondary-group[,group,...] .Oo .Fl g Ar gid | name | Li =uid Oc .Op Fl k Ar skel-directory .Op Fl L Ar login-class .Op Fl p Ar password .Oo .Fl r Ar low Ns Li .. Ns Ar high .Oc .Op Fl s Ar shell .Op Fl u Ar uid .Ar user .Ek .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm useradd utility adds a user to the system, creating and populating a home directory if necessary. Any skeleton files will be provided for the new user if they exist in the .Ar skel-directory directory (see the .Fl k option). Default values for the base directory, the time of password expiry, the time of account expiry, primary group, the skeleton directory, the range from which the UID will be allocated, and default login shell can be provided in the .Pa /etc/usermgmt.conf file, which, if running as root, is created using the built-in defaults if it does not exist. .Pp The first form of the command shown above (using the .Fl D option) sets and displays the defaults for the .Nm utility. .Bl -tag -width Ds .It Fl b Ar base-directory Sets the base directory. This is the directory to which the user directory is added, which will be created if the .Fl m option is specified and no .Fl d option is specified. .It Fl D Without any further options, .Fl D will show the current defaults which will be used by the .Nm utility. Together with one of the options shown for the first version of the command, .Fl D will set the default to be the new value. See .Xr usermgmt.conf 5 for more information. .It Fl e Ar expiry-time Sets the default time at which new accounts will expire. It should be entered in the form .Dq month day year , where month is the month name (the first three characters are sufficient), day is the day of the month, and year is the year. Time in seconds since the Epoch (UTC) is also valid. A value of 0 can be used to disable this feature. .It Fl f Ar inactive-time Sets the time at which passwords of new accounts will expire. Also see the .Fl e option above. .It Fl g Ar gid | name | Li =uid Sets the default group for new users. .It Fl k Ar skel-directory Sets the skeleton directory in which to find files with which to populate new users' home directories. .It Fl L Ar login-class Sets the default login class for new users. See .Xr login.conf 5 for more information on user login classes. .It Xo .Fl r Ar low Ns Li .. Ns Ar high .Xc Sets the low and high bounds of UID ranges for new users. A new user can only be created if there are UIDs which can be assigned from one of the free ranges. .It Fl s Ar shell Sets the default login shell for new users. .El .Pp In the second form of the command, after setting any defaults, and then reading values from .Pa /etc/usermgmt.conf , the following command line options are processed: .Bl -tag -width Ds .It Fl b Ar base-directory Sets the base directory name, in which the user's new home directory will be created, should the .Fl m option be specified. .It Fl c Ar comment Sets the comment field (also, for historical reasons known as the GECOS field) which will be added for the user, and typically will include the user's full name, and, perhaps, contact information for the user. .It Fl d Ar home-directory Sets the home directory which will be created and populated for the user, should the .Fl m option be specified. .It Fl e Ar expiry-time Sets the time at which the user account will expire. It should be entered in the form .Dq month day year , where month is the month name (the first three characters are sufficient), day is the day of the month, and year is the year. Time in seconds since the Epoch (UTC) is also valid. A value of 0 can be used to disable this feature. See .Xr passwd 5 for more details. .It Fl f Ar inactive-time Sets the time at which the current password will expire. Also see the .Fl e option above. .It Fl G Ar secondary-group[,group,...] Sets the secondary groups to which the user will be added in the .Pa /etc/group file. .It Fl g Ar gid | name | Li =uid Gives the group name or identifier to be used for the new user's primary group. If this is .Ql =uid , then a UID and GID will be picked which are both unique and the same, and a line added to .Pa /etc/group to describe the new group. .It Fl k Ar skel-directory Gives the skeleton directory in which to find files with which to populate the new user's home directory. .It Fl L Ar login-class This option sets the login class for the user being created. See .Xr login.conf 5 for more information on user login classes. .It Fl m Create a new home directory for the new user. .It Fl o Allow the new user to have a UID which is already in use for another user. .It Fl p Ar password Specifies an already-encrypted password for the new user. This password can then be changed by using the .Xr chpass 1 utility. If this option is not specified, and no default exists in .Pa /etc/usermgmt.conf , the account will be disabled by default. .It Fl s Ar shell Specifies the login shell for the new user. .It Fl u Ar uid Specifies a UID for the new user. Boundaries for this value can be preset for all users by using the .Ar range field in the .Pa /etc/usermgmt.conf file. .It Fl v Enables verbose mode - explain the commands as they are executed. .El .Pp Once the information has been verified, .Nm uses .Xr pwd_mkdb 8 to update the user database. This is run in the background, and, at very large sites could take several minutes. Until this update is completed, the password file is unavailable for other updates and the new information is not available to programs. .Pp .Ex -std useradd .Sh FILES .Bl -tag -width /etc/usermgmt.conf -compact .It Pa /etc/usermgmt.conf .It Pa /etc/skel/* .It Pa /etc/login.conf .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr chpass 1 , .Xr group 5 , .Xr login.conf 5 , .Xr passwd 5 , .Xr usermgmt.conf 5 , .Xr pwd_mkdb 8 , .Xr user 8 , .Xr userdel 8 , .Xr usermod 8 .Sh STANDARDS Other implementations of the .Nm useradd utility use the .Ar inactive-time parameter to refer to the maximum number of days allowed between logins (this is used to lock "stale" accounts that have not been used for a period of time). However, on .Ox systems this parameter refers instead to the password change time. This is due to differences in the .Xr passwd 5 database compared to other operating systems. .Sh HISTORY The .Nm utility first appeared in .Ox 2.7 . .Sh AUTHORS The .Nm utility was written by .An Alistair G. Crooks Aq agc@NetBSD.org .