Quick ?s
Cheat Sheets
Man Pages
The Lynx
Software
ADDUSER(8)							    ADDUSER(8)



NAME
       adduser, addgroup - add a user or group to the system

SYNOPSIS
       adduser	[options]  [--home  DIR]  [--shell  SHELL]  [--no-create-home]
       [--uid ID] [--firstuid ID] [--lastuid ID] [--ingroup GROUP | --gid  ID]
       [--disabled-password]	  [--disabled-login]	  [--gecos	GECOS]
       [--add_extra_groups] user

       adduser --system [options] [--home DIR] [--shell  SHELL]  [--no-create-
       home]  [--uid  ID]  [--group | --ingroup GROUP | --gid ID] [--disabled-
       password] [--disabled-login] [--gecos GECOS] user

       addgroup [options] [--gid ID] group

       addgroup --system [options] [--gid ID] group

       adduser [options] user group

   COMMON OPTIONS
       [--quiet] [--debug] [--force-badname] [--help|-h]  [--version]  [--conf
       FILE]

DESCRIPTION
       adduser	and  addgroup  add users and groups to the system according to
       command	  line	  options    and    configuration    information    in
       /etc/adduser.conf.   They  are  friendlier  front ends to the low level
       tools like useradd, groupadd and usermod programs, by default  choosing
       Debian  policy conformant UID and GID values, creating a home directory
       with skeletal configuration, running a custom script,  and  other  fea
       tures.  adduser and addgroup can be run in one of five modes:

   Add a normal user
       If  called  with  one  non-option  argument and without the --system or
       --group options, adduser will add a normal user.

       adduser will choose the first available UID from  the  range  specified
       for  normal users in the configuration file.  The UID can be overridden
       with the --uid option.

       The range specified in the configuration file may  be  overridden  with
       the --firstuid and --lastuid options.

       By  default,  each  user  in  Debian GNU/Linux is given a corresponding
       group with the same name.  Usergroups allow group writable  directories
       to  be  easily  maintained  by placing the appropriate users in the new
       group, setting the set-group-ID bit in the directory, and ensuring that
       all  users use a umask of 002.  If this option is turned off by setting
       USERGROUPS to no, all users GIDs are set to USERS_GID.  Users primary
       groups  can  also be overridden from the command line with the --gid or
       --ingroup options to set the group by id or name, respectively.	 Also,
       users can be added to one or more groups defined in adduser.conf either
       by setting  ADD_EXTRA_GROUPS  to  1  in	adduser.conf,  or  by  passing
       --add_extra_groups on the commandline.

       adduser	will create a home directory subject to DHOME, GROUPHOMES, and
       LETTERHOMES.  The home directory can be	overridden  from  the  command
       line with the --home option, and the shell with the --shell option. The
       home directorys set-group-ID bit is set if USERGROUPS is yes  so  that
       any  files  created  in the users home directory will have the correct
       group.

       adduser will copy files from SKEL into the home	directory  and	prompt
       for  finger  (gecos) information and a password.  The gecos may also be
       set with the --gecos option.  With  the	--disabled-login  option,  the
       account	will  be created but will be disabled until a password is set.
       The --disabled-password option will not set a password,	but  login  is
       still possible (for example with SSH RSA keys).

       If  the	file /usr/local/sbin/adduser.local exists, it will be executed
       after the user account has been set up in order to do any local	setup.
       The arguments passed to adduser.local are:
       username uid gid home-directory
       The  environment  variable  VERBOSE  is	set according to the following
       rule:

       0 if --quiet is specified

       1 if neither --quiet nor --debug is specified

       2 if --debug is specified

	      (The same applies to the variable DEBUG, but DEBUG is deprecated
	      and will be removed in a later version of adduser.)


   Add a system user
       If called with one non-option argument and the --system option, adduser
       will add a system user. If a user with the same name already exists  in
       the  system uid range (or, if the uid is specified, if a user with that
       uid already exists), adduser will exit with a warning.

       adduser will choose the first available UID from  the  range  specified
       for  system  users  in  the  configuration  file  (FIRST_SYSTEM_UID and
       LAST_SYSTEM_UID). If you want to have a specific UID, you  can  specify
       it using the --uid option.

       By default, system users are placed in the nogroup group.  To place the
       new system user	in  an	already  existing  group,  use	the  --gid  or
       --ingroup  options.   To  place the new system user in a new group with
       the same ID, use the --group option.

       A home directory is created by the same rules as for normal users.  The
       new  system user will have the shell /bin/false (unless overridden with
       the --shell option), and have logins disabled.  Skeletal  configuration
       files are not copied.

   Add a user group
       If  adduser  is called with the --group option and without the --system
       option, or addgroup is called respectively, a user group will be added.


       A  GID  will  be chosen from the range specified for system GIDS in the
       configuration file (FIRST_GID, LAST_GID). To  override  that  mechanism
       you can give the GID using the --gid option.

       The group is created with no users.

   Add a system group
       If  addgroup is called with the --system option, a system group will be
       added.

       A GID will be chosen from the range specified for system  GIDS  in  the
       configuration  file  (FIRST_SYSTEM_GID,	LAST_SYSTEM_GID).  To override
       that mechanism you can give the GID using the --gid option.

       The group is created with no users.

   Add an existing user to an existing group
       If called with two non-option arguments, adduser will add  an  existing
       user to an existing group.

OPTIONS
       --conf FILE
	      Use FILE instead of /etc/adduser.conf.

       --disabled-login
	      Do  not  run passwd to set the password.	The user wont be able
	      to use her account until the password is set.

       --disabled-password
	      Like --disabled-login, but logins are still possible (for  exam
	      ple using SSH RSA keys) but not using password authentication.

       --force-badname
	      By default, user and group names are checked against the config
	      urable regular expression NAME_REGEX specified in the configura
	      tion file. This option forces adduser and addgroup to apply only
	      a weak check for validity of the name.

       --gecos GECOS
	      Set the gecos field for the new entry generated.	 adduser  will
	      not ask for finger information if this option is given.

       --gid ID
	      When  creating a group, this option forces the new groupid to be
	      the given number.  When creating a user, this  option  will  put
	      the user in that group.

       --group
	      When  combined  with --system, a group with the same name and ID
	      as the system user is created.  If not combined with --system, a
	      group  with  the	given  name  is  created.  This is the default
	      action if the program is invoked as addgroup.

       --help Display brief instructions.

       --home DIR
	      Use DIR as the users home directory, rather  than  the  default
	      specified  by the configuration file.  If the directory does not
	      exist, it is created and skeleton files are copied.

       --shell SHELL
	      Use SHELL as the users login shell,  rather  than  the  default
	      specified by the configuration file.

       --ingroup GROUP
	      Add  the new user to GROUP instead of a usergroup or the default
	      group defined by USERS_GID  in  the  configuration  file.   This
	      affects  the users primary group.  To add additional groups, see
	      the add_extra_groups option

       --no-create-home
	      Do not create the home directory, even if it doesnt exist.

       --quiet
	      Suppress informational messages, only show warnings and  errors.

       --debug
	      Be  verbose, most useful if you want to nail down a problem with
	      adduser.

       --system
	      Create a system user or group.

       --uid ID
	      Force the new userid to be the given number.  adduser will  fail
	      if the userid is already taken.

       --firstuid ID
	      Override	the first uid in the range that the uid is chosen from
	      (overrides FIRST_UID specified in the configuration file).

       --lastuid ID
	      Override the last uid in the range that the uid is chosen from (
	      LAST_UID )

       --add_extra_groups
	      Add  new user to extra groups defined in the configuration file.

       --version
	      Display version and copyright information.


EXIT VALUES
       0      The user exists as specified. This can have 2 causes:  The  user
	      was  created  by	adduser or the user was already present on the
	      system before adduser was invoked.  Invoking  adduser  a	second
	      time with the same parameters as before also returns 0.

       1      Creating the user or group failed because it was already present
	      with other UID/GID than specified. The username or groupname was
	      rejected	because  of  a	mismatch  with	the configured regular
	      expressions, see adduser.conf(5). Adduser has been aborted by  a
	      signal.
	      Or  for many other yet undocumented reasons which are printed to
	      console then. You may then consider to remove  --quiet  to  make
	      adduser more verbose.


FILES
       /etc/adduser.conf
	      Default configuration file for adduser and addgroup

SEE ALSO
       adduser.conf(5),   deluser(8),	useradd(8),  groupadd(8),  usermod(8),
       Debian Policy 9.2.2.


COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (C) 1997, 1998, 1999 Guy Maor. Modifications by Roland Bauer
       schmidt	and  Marc  Haber.  Additional patches by Joerg Hoh and Stephen
       Gran.
       Copyright (C) 1995 Ted Hajek, with a great deal borrowed from the orig
       inal Debian adduser
       Copyright  (C) 1994 Ian Murdock.  adduser is free software; see the GNU
       General Public Licence version  2  or  later  for  copying  conditions.
       There is no warranty.



Debian GNU/Linux		 Version 3.110			    ADDUSER(8)




Yals.net is © 1999-2009 Crescendo Communications
Sharing tech info on the web for more than a decade!
This page was generated Thu Apr 30 17:05:31 2009