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32 .Nd create, remove, modify & display system users and groups
70 .Op Fl u Ar min , Ns Ar max
71 .Op Fl i Ar min , Ns Ar max
153 .Op Fl m Ar newmembers
186 is a command-line based editor for the system
190 files, allowing the superuser an easy to use and standardized way of adding,
191 modifying and removing users and groups.
194 only operates on the local user and group files. NIS users and groups must be
195 maintained on the NIS server.
201 and the secure and insecure
202 password database files, and must be run as root.
204 The first one or two keywords provided to
206 on the command line provide the context for the remainder of the arguments.
225 all mean the same thing.)
226 This flexibility is useful for interactive scripts calling
228 for user and group database manipulation.
229 Following these keywords, you may optionally specify the user or group name or numeric
230 id as an alternative to using the
236 The following flags are common to most or all modes of operation;
238 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
240 This flag sets an alternate location for the password, group and configuration files,
241 and may be used to maintain a user/group database in an alternate location.
242 If this switch is specified, the system
244 will not be sourced for default configuration data, but the file pw.conf in the
245 specified directory will be used instead (or none, if it does not exist).
248 flag may be used to override this behaviour.
249 As an exception to the general rule where options must follow the operation
252 flag may be used on the command line before the operation keyword.
258 to obtain policy information on how new user accounts and groups are to be created.
261 option specifies a different configuration file.
262 While most of the contents of the configuration file may be overridden via
263 command-line options, it may be more convenient to keep standard information in a
266 Use of this option causes
268 to suppress error messages, which may be useful in interactive environments where it
269 is preferable to interpret status codes returned by
271 rather than messing up a carefully formatted display.
273 This option is available in
277 operations, and tells
279 to output the result of the operation without updating the user or group
283 option to switch between standard passwd and readable formats.
285 Using this option with any of the update modes causes
289 after changing to the directory
291 This is intended to allow automatic updating of NIS database files.
292 If separate passwd and group files are being used by NIS, then use the
294 option to specify the location of the NIS passwd database so that
296 will concurrently update it with the system password
300 The following options apply to the
306 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
308 Specify the user/account name.
310 Specify the user/account numeric id.
312 Usually, you only need to provide one or the other of these options, as the account
313 name will imply the uid, or vice versa.
314 However, there are times when you need to provide both.
315 For example, when changing the uid of an existing user with
317 or overriding the default uid when creating a new account.
320 to automatically allocate the uid to a new user with
327 You may also provide either the account or userid immediately after the
333 keywords on the command line without using the
340 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
342 This field sets the contents of the passwd GECOS field, which normally contains up
343 to four comma-separated fields containing the user's full name, office or location,
344 and work and home phone numbers.
345 These sub-fields are used by convention only, however, and are optional.
346 If this field is to contain spaces, you need to quote the comment itself with double
349 Avoid using commas in this field as these are used as sub-field separators, and the
352 character also cannot be used as this is the field separator for the passwd
355 This option sets the account's home directory.
356 Normally, you will only use this if the home directory is to be different from the
357 default determined from
361 with the account name as a subdirectory.
363 Set the account's expiration date.
364 Format of the date is either a UNIX time in decimal, or a date in
366 format, where dd is the day, mmm is the month, either in numeric or alphabetic format
367 ('Jan', 'Feb', etc) and year is either a two or four digit year.
368 This option also accepts a relative date in the form
372 is a decimal, octal (leading 0) or hexadecimal (leading 0x) digit followed by the
373 number of Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months or Years from the current date at
374 which the expiration date is to be set.
376 Set the account's password expiration date.
377 This field is similar to the account expiration date option, except that it
378 applies to forced password changes.
379 This is set in the same manner as the
383 Set the account's primary group to the given group.
385 may be defined by either its name or group number.
386 .It Fl G Ar grouplist
387 Sets additional group memberships for an account.
389 is a comma-separated list of group names or group numbers.
390 The user's name is added to the group lists in
393 removed from any groups not specified in
395 Note: a user should not be added to their primary group with
397 Also, group membership changes do not take effect for current user login
398 sessions, requiring the user to reconnect to be affected by the changes.
400 This option sets the login class for the user being created.
403 for more information on user login classes.
405 This option instructs
407 to attempt to create the user's home directory.
408 While primarily useful when adding a new account with
410 this may also be of use when moving an existing user's home directory elsewhere on
412 The new home directory is populated with the contents of the
414 directory, which typically contains a set of shell configuration files that the
415 user may personalize to taste.
418 is used on an account with
420 existing configuration files in the user's home directory are
422 overwritten from the skeleton files.
424 When a user's home directory is created, it will by default be a subdirectory of the
426 directory as specified by the
428 option (see below), bearing the name of the new account.
429 This can be overridden by the
431 option on the command line, if desired.
435 directory, from which basic startup and configuration files are copied when
436 the user's home directory is created.
437 This option only has meaning when used with the
443 Set or changes the user's login shell to
445 If the path to the shell program is omitted,
451 and fills it in as appropriate.
452 Note that unless you have a specific reason to do so, you should avoid
453 specifying the path - this will allow
455 to validate that the program exists and is executable.
456 Specifying a full path (or supplying a blank "" shell) avoids this check
457 and allows for such entries as
459 that should be set for accounts not intended for interactive login.
463 field in the user's passwd record.
464 This field is not currently used, but will be used in the future to specify a
471 This option provides a special interface by which interactive scripts can
472 set an account password using
474 Because the command line and environment are fundamentally insecure mechanisms
475 by which programs can accept information,
477 will only allow setting of account and group passwords via a file descriptor
478 (usually a pipe between an interactive script and the program).
484 all possess mechanisms by which this can be done.
487 will prompt for the user's password if
491 as the file descriptor on which to read the password.
492 Note that this password will be read only once and is intended
493 for use by a script rather than for interactive use.
494 If you wish to have new password confirmation along the lines of
496 this must be implemented as part of an interactive script that calls
501 is given as the argument
503 then the password will be set to
505 rendering the account inaccessible via password-based login.
508 It is possible to use
510 to create a new account that duplicates an existing user id.
511 While this is normally considered an error and will be rejected, the
513 option overrides the check for duplicates and allows the duplication of
515 This may be useful if you allow the same user to login under
516 different contexts (different group allocations, different home
517 directory, different shell) while providing basically the same
518 permissions for access to the user's files in each account.
522 command also has the ability to set new user and group defaults by using the
525 Instead of adding a new user,
527 writes a new set of defaults to its configuration file,
531 option, you must not use either
535 or an error will result.
538 changes the meaning of several command line switches in the
542 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
544 Set default values in
546 configuration file, or a different named configuration file if the
550 Set the root directory in which user home directories are created.
551 The default value for this is
553 but it may be set elsewhere as desired.
555 Set the default account expiration period in days.
558 the argument must be numeric, which specifies the number of days after creation when
559 the account is to expire.
560 A value of 0 suppresses automatic calculation of the expiry date.
562 Set the default password expiration period in days.
564 Set the default group for new users.
565 If a blank group is specified using
567 then new users will be allocated their own private primary group
568 with the same name as their login name.
569 If a group is supplied, either its name or uid may be given as an argument.
570 .It Fl G Ar grouplist
571 Set the default groups in which new users are granted membership.
572 This is a separate set of groups from the primary group, and you should avoid
573 nominating the same group as both primary and extra groups.
574 In other words, these extra groups determine membership in groups
578 is a comma-separated list of group names or ids, and are always
581 by their symbolic names.
583 This option sets the default login class for new users.
587 directory, from which prototype shell and other initialization files are copied when
589 creates a user's home directory.
591 .Fl u Ar min , Ns Ar max ,
592 .Fl i Ar min , Ns Ar max
594 These options set the minimum and maximum user and group ids allocated for new accounts
595 and groups created by
597 The default values for each is 1000 minimum and 32000 maximum.
601 are both numbers, where max must be greater than min, and both must be between 0
603 In general, user and group ids less than 100 are reserved for use by the system,
604 and numbers greater than 32000 may also be reserved for special purposes (used by
605 some system daemons).
609 option sets the default method used to set passwords for newly created user accounts.
613 .Bl -tag -width random -offset indent -compact
615 disable login on newly created accounts
617 force the password to be the account name
619 force a blank password
621 generate a random password
628 methods are the most secure; in the former case,
630 generates a password and prints it to stdout, which is suitable where you issue
631 users with passwords to access their accounts rather than having the user nominate
632 their own (possibly poorly chosen) password.
635 method requires that the superuser use
637 to render the account accessible with a password.
639 This sets the pathname of the database used by NIS if you are not sharing
641 .Pa /etc/master.passwd
643 You should only set this option for NIS servers.
648 command has only three valid options.
653 options have already been covered above.
654 The additional option is:
655 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
659 to remove the user's home directory and all of its contents.
661 errs on the side of caution when removing files from the system.
662 Firstly, it will not do so if the uid of the account being removed is also used by
663 another account on the system, and the 'home' directory in the password file is
664 a valid path that commences with the character
666 Secondly, it will only remove files and directories that are actually owned by
667 the user, or symbolic links owned by anyone under the user's home directory.
668 Finally, after deleting all contents owned by the user only empty directories
670 If any additional cleanup work is required, this is left to the administrator.
673 Mail spool files and crontabs are always removed when an account is deleted as these
674 are unconditionally attached to the user name.
675 Jobs queued for processing by
677 are also removed if the user's uid is unique and not also used by another account on the
682 command allows viewing of an account in one of two formats.
683 By default, the format is identical to the format used in
684 .Pa /etc/master.passwd
685 with the password field replaced with a
691 outputs the account details in a more human readable form.
694 option lists all users currently on file.
698 returns the next available user and group ids separated by a colon.
699 This is normally of interest only to interactive scripts or front-ends
707 options (explained at the start of the previous section) are available
708 with the group manipulation commands.
709 Other common options to all group-related commands are:
710 .Bl -tag -width "-m newmembers"
712 Specify the group name.
714 Specify the group numeric id.
716 As with the account name and id fields, you will usually only need
717 to supply one of these, as the group name implies the uid and vice
719 You will only need to use both when setting a specific group id
720 against a new group or when changing the uid of an existing group.
721 .It Fl M Ar memberlist
722 This option provides an alternative way to add existing users to a
723 new group (in groupadd) or replace an existing membership list (in
726 is a comma separated list of valid and existing user names or uids.
727 .It Fl m Ar newmembers
730 this option allows the
732 of existing users to a group without replacing the existing list of
734 Login names or user ids may be used, and duplicate users are
741 option that allows allocation of an existing group id to a new group.
742 The default action is to reject an attempt to add a group, and this option overrides
743 the check for duplicate group ids.
744 There is rarely any need to duplicate a group id.
748 command adds one additional option:
750 .Bl -tag -width "-m newmembers"
752 This option allows changing of an existing group name to
754 The new name must not already exist, and any attempt to duplicate an existing group
755 name will be rejected.
766 to specify the group id.
770 returns the next available group id on standard output.
773 supports a simple password locking mechanism for users; it works by
774 prepending the string
776 to the beginning of the password field in
778 to prevent successful authentication.
784 commands take a user name or uid of the account to lock or unlock,
790 options as described above are accepted by these commands.
793 returns EXIT_SUCCESS on successful operation, otherwise
796 following exit codes defined by
803 Command line syntax errors (invalid keyword, unknown option).
808 Attempting to run one of the update modes as non-root.
813 Memory allocation error.
815 Read error from password file descriptor.
820 Bad or invalid data provided or missing on the command line or
821 via the password file descriptor.
823 Attempted to remove, rename root account or change its uid.
828 Skeleton directory is invalid or does not exist.
830 Base home directory is invalid or does not exist.
832 Invalid or non-existent shell specified.
837 User, user id, group or group id specified does not exist.
839 User or group recorded, added, or modified unexpectedly disappeared.
844 No more group or user ids available within specified range.
849 Unable to rewrite configuration file.
851 Error updating group or user database files.
853 Update error for passwd or group database files.
858 No base home directory configured.
862 For a summary of options available with each command, you can use
863 .Dl pw [command] help
866 lists all available options for the useradd operation.
869 allows 8-bit characters in the passwd GECOS field (user's full name,
870 office, work and home phone number subfields), but disallows them in
871 user login and group names.
872 Use 8-bit characters with caution, as connection to the Internet will
873 require that your mail transport program supports 8BITMIME, and will
874 convert headers containing 8-bit characters to 7-bit quoted-printable
878 Use of 8-bit characters in the GECOS field should be used in
879 conjunction with the user's default locale and character set
880 and should not be implemented without their use.
881 Using 8-bit characters may also affect other
882 programs that transmit the contents of the GECOS field over the
885 and a small number of TCP/IP clients, such as IRC, where full names
886 specified in the passwd file may be used by default.
888 .Bl -tag -width /etc/master.passwd.new -compact
889 .It Pa /etc/master.passwd
892 A Version 7 format password file
893 .It Pa /etc/login.conf
894 The user capabilities database
897 .It Pa /etc/master.passwd.new
898 Temporary copy of the master password file
899 .It Pa /etc/passwd.new
900 Temporary copy of the Version 7 password file
901 .It Pa /etc/group.new
902 Temporary copy of the group file
904 Pw default options file
917 was written to mimic many of the options used in the SYSV
919 support suite, but is modified for passwd and group fields specific to
922 operating system, and combines all of the major elements
923 into a single command.
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