NAME
useradd —
add a user to the
system
SYNOPSIS
useradd |
-D [-F]
[-b
base-dir]
[-e
expiry-time]
[-f
inactive-time]
[-g gid |
name | =uid ]
[-k
skel-dir]
[-L
login-class]
[-M
home-perm]
[-r
lowuid.. highuid]
[-s
shell] |
useradd |
[-moSv]
[-b
base-dir]
[-c
comment]
[-d
home-dir]
[-e
expiry-time]
[-f
inactive-time]
[-G
secondary-group]
[-g gid |
name | =uid ]
[-k
skel-dir]
[-L
login-class]
[-M
home-perm]
[-p
password]
[-r
lowuid.. highuid]
[-s shell]
[-u uid]
user |
DESCRIPTION
The
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
skel-dir directory
(see the
-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
/etc/usermgmt.conf file, which, if running as root, is
created using the built-in defaults if it does not exist.
The first form of the command shown above (using the
-D
option) sets and displays the defaults for the
useradd
utility.
See
user(8) for more information
about
EXTENSIONS
.
-
-
- -b
base-dir
- Set the default base directory. This is the directory to
which the user directory is added, which will be created if the
-m option is specified and no -d
option is specified.
-
-
- -D
- without any further options, -D will show
the current defaults which will be used by the useradd
utility. Together with one of the options shown for the first version of
the command, -D will set the default to be the new
value. See
usermgmt.conf(5) for
more information.
-
-
- -e
expiry-time
- Set the time at which the new user accounts will expire. 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.
-
-
- -F
- Force the user to change their password upon next
login.
-
-
- -f
inactive-time
- Set the time at which passwords for the new user accounts
will expire. Also see the -e option above.
-
-
- -g
gid | groupname |
=uid
- Set the default group for new users.
-
-
- -k
skel-dir
- Set the skeleton directory in which to find files with
which to populate new users' home directories.
-
-
- -L
login-class
- Set the default login class for new users. See
login.conf(5) for more
information on user login classes. This option is included if built with
EXTENSIONS
.
-
-
- -M
home-perm
- sets the default permissions of the newly created home
directory if -m is given. The permission is specified as
an octal number, with or without a leading zero.
-
-
- -r
lowuid
..
highuid
- Set 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. This option is included if built with
EXTENSIONS
.
-
-
- -s
shell
- Set the default login shell for new users.
In the second form of the command, after setting any defaults, and then reading
values from
/etc/usermgmt.conf, the following command line
options are processed:
-
-
- -b
base-directory
- Set the base directory name, in which the user's new home
directory will be created, should the -m option be
specified.
-
-
- -c
comment
- Set 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.
-
-
- -d
home-directory
- Set the home directory which will be created and populated
for the user, should the -m option be specified.
-
-
- -e
expiry-time
- Set the time at which the current password will expire for
new users. 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. See passwd(5) for
more details.
-
-
- -f
inactive-time
- Set the time at which new user accounts will expire. Also
see the -e option above.
-
-
- -G
secondary-group
- Add the user to the secondary group
secondary-group 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 new
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 added to
/etc/group to describe the new group.
-
-
- -k
skeleton directory
- Give the skeleton directory in which to find files with
which to populate the new user's home directory.
-
-
- -L
login-class
- Set the login class for the user being created. See
login.conf(5) for more
information on user login classes. This option is included if built with
EXTENSIONS
.
-
-
- -M
home-perm
- sets the permissions of the newly created home directory if
-m is given. The permission is specified as an octal
number, with or without a leading zero.
-
-
- -m
- Create a new home directory for the new user.
-
-
- -o
- Allow the new user to have a uid which is already in use
for another user.
-
-
- -p
password
- Specify an already-encrypted password for the new user.
Encrypted passwords can be generated with
pwhash(1). The password can
be changed later by using
chpass(1) or
passwd(1). This option is
included if built with
EXTENSIONS
.
-
-
- -S
- Allow samba user names with a trailing dollar sign to be
added to the system. This option is included if built with
EXTENSIONS
.
-
-
- -s
shell
- Specify the login shell for the new user.
-
-
- -u
uid
- Specify a uid for the new user. Boundaries for this value
can be preset for all users by using the range field
in the /etc/usermgmt.conf file.
-
-
- -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,
useradd uses
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.
FILES
- /etc/usermgmt.conf
-
- /etc/skel/*
-
- /etc/login.conf
-
EXIT STATUS
The
useradd utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if
an error occurs.
SEE ALSO
chpass(1),
passwd(1),
pwhash(1),
group(5),
login.conf(5),
passwd(5),
usermgmt.conf(5),
pwd_mkdb(8),
user(8),
userdel(8),
usermod(8)
HISTORY
The
useradd utility first appeared in
NetBSD
1.5. It is based on the
addnerd package by the
same author.
AUTHORS
The
useradd utility was written by
Alistair
G. Crooks ⟨agc@NetBSD.org⟩.
Support for setting permissions of home directories was added by Hubert
Feyrer.