NAME
usermod —
modify user login
information
SYNOPSIS
usermod |
[-FmoSv]
[-C
yes/no]
[-c
comment]
[-d
home-dir]
[-e
expiry-time]
[-f
inactive-time]
[-G
secondary-group]
[-g gid |
name | =uid ]
[-L
login-class]
[-l
new-login]
[-p
password]
[-s shell]
[-u uid]
user |
DESCRIPTION
The
usermod utility modifies user login information on the
system.
Default values are taken from the information provided in the
/etc/usermgmt.conf file, which, if running as root, is
created using the built-in defaults if it does not exist.
See
user(8) for more information
about
EXTENSIONS
.
After setting any defaults, and then reading values from
/etc/usermgmt.conf, the following command line options are
processed:
-
-
- -C
yes/no
- Enable user accounts to be temporary locked/closed. The
yes/no operand can be given as
“yes” to lock the account or
“no” to unlock the account.
-
-
- -c
comment
- Set the comment field (also, for historical reasons known
as the GECOS field) for the user. The comment field will typically include
the user's full name and, perhaps, contact information for the user.
-
-
- -d
home-directory
- Set the home directory without populating it; if the
-m option is specified, tries to move the old home
directory to home-directory.
-
-
- -e
expiry-time
- Set the time at which the account expires. This can be used
to implement password aging. It should be entered in the form “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. This value can be preset for all users using the
expire field in the
/etc/usermgmt.conf file. See
usermgmt.conf(5) for
more details.
-
-
- -F
- Force the user to change their password upon next
login.
-
-
- -f
inactive-time
- Set the time at which the password expires. See the
-e option.
-
-
- -G
secondary-group
- Specify a secondary group to which the user will be added
in the /etc/group file. The
secondary-group may be a comma-delimited list for
multiple groups. Or the option may be repeated for multiple groups. (16
groups maximum.)
-
-
- -g
gid | name |
=uid
- Give the group name or identifier to be used for the user's
primary group. If this is ‘
=uid
’, then
a uid and gid will be picked which are both unique and the same, and a
line will be added to /etc/group to describe the new
group. This value can be preset for all users by using the
group field in the
/etc/usermgmt.conf file. See
usermgmt.conf(5) for
more details.
-
-
- -L
login-class
- Set the login class for the user. See
login.conf(5) for more
information on user login classes. This value can be preset for all users
by using the class field in the
/etc/usermgmt.conf file. See
usermgmt.conf(5) for
more details. This option is included if built with
EXTENSIONS
.
-
-
- -l
new-user
- Give the new user name. It can consist of alphanumeric
characters and the characters ‘
.
’,
‘-
’, and
‘_
’.
-
-
- -m
- Move the home directory from its old position to the new
one. If -d is not specified, the
new-user argument of the -l option
is used; one of -d and -l is
needed.
-
-
- -o
- Allow duplicate uids to be given.
-
-
- -p
password
- Specify an already-encrypted password for the user. This
password can then be changed by using the
chpass(1) utility. This
value can be preset for all users by using the
password field in the
/etc/usermgmt.conf file. See
usermgmt.conf(5) for
more details. This option is included if built with
EXTENSIONS
.
-
-
- -S
- Allow samba user names with a trailing dollar sign to be
modified. This option is included if built with
EXTENSIONS
.
-
-
- -s
shell
- Specify the login shell for the user. This value can be
preset for all users by using the shell field in the
/etc/usermgmt.conf file. See
usermgmt.conf(5) for
more details.
-
-
- -u
uid
- Specify a new uid for the user. Boundaries for this value
can be preset for all users by using the range field
in the /etc/usermgmt.conf file. See
usermgmt.conf(5) for
more details.
-
-
- -v
- Enable verbose mode - explain the commands as they are
executed. This option is included if built with
EXTENSIONS
.
Once the information has been verified,
usermod uses
pwd_mkdb(8) to update the user
database. This is run in the background. At very large sites this can 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.
FILES
- /etc/usermgmt.conf
-
EXIT STATUS
The
usermod utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if
an error occurs.
SEE ALSO
chpass(1),
group(5),
passwd(5),
usermgmt.conf(5),
pwd_mkdb(8),
user(8),
useradd(8),
userdel(8)
HISTORY
The
usermod utility first appeared in
NetBSD
1.5. It is based on the
addnerd package by the
same author.
AUTHORS
The
usermod utility was written by
Alistair
G. Crooks ⟨agc@NetBSD.org⟩.