- Mac Add User Command Line
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- Create New User In Mac
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By default the command useradd doesn't create home directories, but for a daemon I recommend you to use the system option and change the shell to a non-existent one so no one can login with said account (in ssh for example): sudo useradd -r -s /bin/false USERNAME. Useradd is a low level utility for adding users. On Debian, administrators should usually use adduser(8) instead. When invoked without the -D option, the useradd command creates a new user account using the values specified on the.
What is useradd?
5 useradd examples
Syntax and Options
Related Commands
What is useradd?
The Linux useradd command is used to create new users. This command is used to update default new user information.
5 useradd Examples
1. Add a user through useradd command
The most basic usage of this command is to add a user account. This can be done by just supplying the user name along with this command.
Consider the following example :
The above command adds a user named guest. Lets confirm it :
What is useradd? 5 useradd examples Syntax and Options Related Commands. What is useradd? The Linux useradd command is used to create new users. This command is used to update default new user information. 5 useradd Examples 1. Add a user through useradd command. The most basic usage of this command is to add a user account. You'll have to create /Users/luser for the user's home directory and change ownership so the user can access it, and be sure that the UniqueID is in fact unique. This line will add the user to the administrator's group: dscl.append /Groups/admin GroupMembership luser.
Mac Add User Command Line
So the above output (highlighted in bold) confirms that a user account with name ‘guest’ was created.
2. See all the default values associated with a user account using -D option
When a user account is created, some extra information is associated with account by default. To view these default values, use the -D option along with this command.
Consider the example below :
So we see that all the default values were produced in the output.
3. Change default values produced by -D option
All the default values (as shown in the example above) can be changed by using various options. Here, lets try to change the SHELL. This value can be changed using -s option.
Consider the following example :
Now lets check whether the change was actually done or not.
The line in bold above confirms that the change actually took place. Similarly other default values can be changed.
4. Directly supply the encrypted password using -p option
As we know that whatever password we supply for a user account, it is encrypted and then stored. So through this option we can directly supply an encrypted password. The encrypted password is obtained from the crypt command. But, usage of this option is not recommended. From the man page :
Note: This option is not recommended because the password (or encrypted password) will be visible by users listing the processes. You should make sure the password respects the systems password policy.
5. Create a group with same name as the user
This can be achieved by using -U option. The group will be created and the existing user will be added to it.
Consider the following example :
The above command will create a user guest and will add it to a group with same name.
Syntax and Options
| Short Option | Long Option | Option Description |
|---|---|---|
| -b | –base-dir BASE_DIR | The default base directory for the system if -d HOME_DIR is not specified. BASE_DIR is concatenated with the account name to define the home directory. If the -m option is not used, BASE_DIR must exist. If this option is not specified, useradd will use the base directory specified by the HOME variable in /etc/default/useradd, or /home by default. |
| -c | –comment COMMENT | Any text string. It is generally a short description of the login, and is currently used as the field for the users full name. |
| -c | –changes | like verbose but report only when a change is made |
| -d | –home HOME_DIR | The new user will be created using HOME_DIR as the value for the users login directory. The default is to append the LOGIN name to BASE_DIR and use that as the login directory name. The directory HOME_DIR does not have to exist but will not be created if it is missing. |
| -D | –defaults | See below, the subsection “Changing the default values”. |
| -e | –expiredate EXPIRE_DATE | The date on which the user account will be disabled. The date is specified in the format YYYY-MM-DD. If not specified, useradd will use the default expiry date specified by the EXPIRE variable in /etc/default/useradd, or an empty string (no expiry) by default. |
| -f | –inactive INACTIVE | The number of days after a password expires until the account is permanently disabled. A value of 0 disables the account as soon as the password has expired, and a value of -1 disables the feature. If not specified, useradd will use the default inactivity period specified by the INACTIVE variable in /etc/default/useradd, or -1 by default. |
| -g | –gid GROUP | The group name or number of the users initial login group. The group name must exist. A group number must refer to an already existing group. If not specified, the bahavior of useradd will depend on the USERGROUPS_ENAB variable in /etc/login.defs. If this variable is set to yes (or -U/–user-group is specified on the command line), a group will be created for the user, with the same name as her loginname. If the variable is set to no (or -N/–no-user-group is specified on the command line), useradd will set the primary group of the new user to the value specified by the GROUP variable in /etc/default/useradd, or 100 by default. |
Related Commands
chfn
chsh
passwd
crypt
groupadd
groupdel
groupmod
userdel
usermod
So what’s the difference between useradd and adduser commands? Is one of them better than the other? Which one should you use? useradd or adduser?
Quick Summary
Useradd is built-in Linux command that can be found on any Linux system. However, creating new users with this low-level is a tedious task.
Adduser is not a standard Linux command. It’s essentially a Perl script that uses the useradd command in the background. This high-level utility is more efficient in properly creating new users on Linux. Default parameters for all new users can also be set through the adduser command.
Let’s take a look at both these commands and how they create users in Linux.
Useradd command
Mac Add User To Group
First, let’s have a look at the default behavior of the useradd command. Have you ever run the following command?
I am yet to see a distribution where this command has created a complete user account. Even after setting a password for the new user, you would need to use additional options with it.
For example, on my system, the above command added the following entry in the /etc/passwd file.
If you read the article on listing users on Linux, you probably already are familiar with the content of the /etc/passwd file. It looks good at first, but if you start digging you will soon notice a few things are not quite right.
First, the second field contains ‘x’. This means that the placeholder for password information is in /etc/shadow. But I have not set a password. This means test user will not be able to log in.
Second, the home directory. The thing is that /home/test does not exist. Even after you set a password, an error will occur if the user logs in. Depending on other configuration, your Linux system may prevent a user without a valid home directory to login. Most probably, user test would be allowed to log in on your system, at least in text mode. But user test will not be allowed to create his home directory.
Third, the default shell is sh, not bash. I don’t use sh as a shell. You probably don’t either because bash is the default shell on most Linux distributions.
While useradd’s behavior can be slightly modified by editing /etc/login.defs, there is little to no chance that the above command will create a complete user account. Useradd is a low-level utility. Still, looking through the settings in /etc/login.defs can be useful.
Adduser command
Adduser is not available on some Linux distributions. On others, it is a soft link to useradd. While on some others, it is a Perl script.
Adduser is an interactive high-level utility. It uses the low level utility useradd as a backend. Settings in /etc/login.defs will be used when using adduser. On Debian based distros, even the man page recommends its use over the useradd command.
Calling adduser with just a username will walk you through a series of questions.
After answering a few questions, a complete user account will be created. The new user is ready to log in through your login manager or in the text mode.
To accomplish almost the same result using the low-level utility useradd, the command would look similar to this:
The -c options can be removed without problems, the comma separated list that follows are comments added to /etc/passwd. But even then adduser saves you two additional commands.
Adduser has a list of options available to you. Here is a short list I think will be most useful to know. Refer to the help or man page for more details.
- system: Add a system user. By default system users are placed in nogroup group. To add a system user to an existing group, provide –gid or –ingroup option.
- home DIR: Use DIR as home directory instead of the default. Directory will be created if needed and skeleton files will be copied.
- shell SHELL: Use SHELL instead of the default.
- ingroup GROUP: Set user’s primary group to GROUP
- add_extra_groups: Add new user to extra group defined in the configuration file.
Adduser’s configuration file lets you set the default values to be used when creating the account. The file is well documented and lets you set default values such as:
- Default shell
- Home directory
- Extra groups
- Add extra groups
Conclusion
In my personal experience, adduser is a lot better at creating new users in Linux. I prefer adduser over useradd any given day and I recommend the same.
What about you? Which one do you prefer between adduser and useradd?
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