adduser(8) System Manager's Manual adduser(8)Name
adduser, removeuser, addgroup - add and remove user accounts
Syntax
/etc/adduser
/etc/removeuser
/etc/addgroup
Description
The command provides an interactive facility for adding new user accounts to the system password file.
The command also sets up a home directory with the files and from the directory for new users.
The interactive command deletes user accounts from the system password file. It also gives the option of deleting the user's home direc-
tory and files.
The interactive command adds new groups to the file.
Restrictions
The `name' can contain only lower case ASCII characters a to z and the numbers 0 to 9.
Files
Lock file
Password file
Group file
Default files directory
See Alsopasswd(1), passwd(5yp), vipw(8)adduser(8)
Check Out this Related Man Page
adduser.conf(5) File Formats Manual adduser.conf(5)NAME
/etc/adduser.conf - configuration file for adduser(8) and addgroup(8).
DESCRIPTION
The file /etc/adduser.conf contains defaults for the programs adduser(8) , addgroup(8) , deluser(8) and delgroup(8). Each line holds a
single value pair in the form option = value. Double or single quotes are allowed around the value, as is whitespace around the equals
sign. Comment lines must have a hash sign (#) in the first column.
The valid configuration options are:
DSHELL The login shell to be used for all new users. Defaults to /bin/bash.
DHOME The directory in which new home directories should be created. Defaults to /home.
GROUPHOMES
If this is set to yes, the home directories will be created as /home/[groupname]/user. Defaults to no.
LETTERHOMES
If this is set to yes, then the home directories created will have an extra directory inserted which is the first letter of the
loginname. For example: /home/u/user. Defaults to no.
SKEL The directory from which skeletal user configuration files should be copied. Defaults to /etc/skel.
FIRST_SYSTEM_UID and LAST_SYSTEM_UID
specify an inclusive range of UIDs from which system UIDs can be dynamically allocated. Default to 100 - 999. Please note that sys-
tem software, such as the users allocated by the base-passwd package, may assume that UIDs less than 100 are unallocated.
FIRST_UID and LAST_UID
specify an inclusive range of UIDs from which normal user's UIDs can be dynamically allocated. Default to 1000 - 29999.
FIRST_SYSTEM_GID and LAST_SYSTEM_GID
specify an inclusive range of GIDs from which system GIDs can be dynamically allocated. Default to 100 - 999.
FIRST_GID and LAST_GID
specify an inclusive range of GIDs from which normal group's GIDs can be dynamically allocated. Default to 1000 - 29999.
USERGROUPS
If this is set to yes, then each created user will be given their own group to use. If this is no, then each created user will be
placed in the group whose GID is USERS_GID (see below). The default is yes.
USERS_GID
If USERGROUPS is no, then USERS_GID is the GID given to all newly-created users. The default value is 100.
DIR_MODE
If set to a valid value (e.g. 0755 or 755), directories created will have the specified permissions as umask. Otherwise 0755 is used
as default.
SETGID_HOME
If this is set to yes, then home directories for users with their own group ( USERGROUPS=yes ) will have the setgid bit set. This
was the default setting for adduser versions << 3.13. Unfortunately it has some bad side effects, so we no longer do this per
default. If you want it nevertheless you can still activate it here.
QUOTAUSER
If set to a nonempty value, new users will have quotas copied from that user. The default is empty.
NAME_REGEX
User and group names are checked against this regular expression. If the name doesn't match this regexp, user and group creation in
adduser is refused unless --force-badname is set. With --force-badname set, only weak checks are performed. The default is the most
conservative ^[a-z][-a-z0-9]*$. When --system is specified, NAME_REGEX_SYSTEM is used instead.
NAME_REGEX_SYSTEM
Names of system users are checked against this regular expression. If --system is supplied and the name doesn't match this regexp,
user creation in adduser is refused unless --force-badname is set. With --force-badname set, only weak checks are performed. The
default is as for the default NAME_REGEX but also allowing uppercase letters.
SKEL_IGNORE_REGEX
Files in /etc/skel/ are checked against this regex, and not copied to the newly created home directory if they match. This is by
default set to the regular expression matching files left over from unmerged config files (dpkg-(old|new|dist)).
ADD_EXTRA_GROUPS
Setting this to something other than 0 (the default) will cause adduser to add newly created non-system users to the list of groups
defined by EXTRA_GROUPS (below).
EXTRA_GROUPS
This is the list of groups that new non-system users will be added to. By default, this list is 'dialout cdrom floppy audio video
plugdev users games'
NOTES
VALID NAMES
adduser and addgroup enforce conformity to IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, which allows only the following characters to appear in group and
user names: letters, digits, underscores, periods, at signs (@) and dashes. The name may no start with a dash. The "$" sign is
allowed at the end of usernames (to conform to samba).
An additional check can be adjusted via the configuration parameter NAME_REGEX to enforce a local policy.
FILES
/etc/adduser.conf
SEE ALSO adduser(8), addgroup(8), deluser(8), delgroup(8), deluser.conf(5)Debian GNU/Linux Version 3.112+nmu1ubuntu5 adduser.conf(5)