redhat man page for newusers

NEWUSERS(8)						      System Manager's Manual						       NEWUSERS(8)

NAME
       newusers - update and create new users in batch

SYNOPSIS
       newusers [new_users]

DESCRIPTION
       newusers  reads a file of user name and cleartext password pairs and uses this information to update a group of existing users or to create
       new users.  Each line is in the same format as the standard password file (see passwd(5)) with the following exceptions.

       pw_passwd This field will be encrypted and used as the new value of the encrypted password.

       pw_age	 This field will be ignored for shadow passwords if the user already exists.

       pw_gid	 This field may be the name of an existing group, in which case the named user will be added  as  a  member.   If  a  non-existent
		 numerical group is given, a new group will be created having this number.

       pw_dir	 This  field  will  be	checked for existence as a directory and a new directory with the same name will be created if it does not
		 already exist.  The ownership of the directory will be set to be that of the user being created or updated.

       This command is intended to be used in a large system environment where many accounts are updated at a single time.

CAVEATS
       The input file must be protected since it contains unencrypted passwords.

SEE ALSO
       passwd(1), useradd(8)

AUTHOR
       Julianne Frances Haugh (jockgrrl@ix.netcom.com)

																       NEWUSERS(8)