2 .\" David L. Nugent. All rights reserved.
4 .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
5 .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
7 .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
8 .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
9 .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
10 .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
11 .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
13 .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY DAVID L. NUGENT AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
14 .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
15 .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
16 .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL DAVID L. NUGENT OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
17 .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
18 .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
19 .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
20 .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
21 .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
22 .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
30 .Nd create, remove, modify & display system users and groups
41 .Op Fl e Ar accexpdate
49 .Op Fl p Ar passexpdate
52 .Op Fl w Ar passmethod
53 .Op Fl Y Op Fl y Ar nispasswd
62 .Op Fl e Ar accexpdays
65 .Op Fl i Ar mingid , Ns Ar maxgid
68 .Op Fl p Ar passexpdays
70 .Op Fl u Ar minuid , Ns Ar maxuid
71 .Op Fl w Ar passmethod
72 .Op Fl Y Op Fl y Ar nispasswd
77 .Oo Fl n Oc Ar name Ns | Ns Oo Fl u Oc Ar uid
79 .Op Fl Y Op Fl y Ar nispasswd
84 .Oo Fl n Oc Ar name Ns | Ns Ar uid Oo Fl u Ar newuid Oc | Fl u Ar uid
89 .Op Fl e Ar accexpdate
98 .Op Fl p Ar passexpdate
100 .Op Fl w Ar passmethod
101 .Op Fl Y Op Fl y Ar nispasswd
106 .Oo Fl n Oc Ar name Ns | Ns Oo Fl u Oc Ar uid
129 .Oo Fl n Oc Ar name Ns | Ns Oo Fl g Oc Ar gid
135 .Oo Fl n Oc Ar name Ns | Ns Ar gid Oo Fl g Ar newgid Oc | Fl g Ar gid
138 .Op Fl d Ar oldmembers
143 .Op Fl m Ar newmembers
148 .Oo Fl n Oc Ar name Ns | Ns Oo Fl g Oc Ar gid
160 .Oo Fl n Oc Ar name Ns | Ns Oo Fl u Oc Ar uid
167 .Oo Fl n Oc Ar name Ns | Ns Oo Fl u Oc Ar uid
173 utility is a command-line based editor for the system
177 files, allowing the superuser an easy to use and standardized way of adding,
178 modifying and removing users and groups.
181 only operates on the local user and group files.
183 users and groups must be
189 utility handles updating the
191 .Xr master.passwd 5 ,
193 and the secure and insecure
194 password database files, and must be run as root.
196 The first one or two keywords provided to
198 on the command line provide the context for the remainder of the arguments.
217 all mean the same thing.)
218 This flexibility is useful for interactive scripts calling
220 for user and group database manipulation.
221 Following these keywords,
222 the user or group name or numeric id may be optionally specified as an
223 alternative to using the
229 The following flags are common to most or all modes of operation:
230 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
232 Specifies an alternate root directory within which
235 Any paths specified will be relative to
238 Set an alternate location for the password, group, and configuration files.
239 Can be used to maintain a user/group database in an alternate location.
240 If this switch is specified, the system
242 will not be sourced for default configuration data,
245 in the specified directory will be used instead
246 .Pq or none, if it does not exist .
249 flag may be used to override this behaviour.
250 As an exception to the general rule where options must follow the operation
253 flag must be used on the command line before the operation keyword.
259 to obtain policy information on how new user accounts and groups are to be created.
262 option specifies a different configuration file.
263 While most of the contents of the configuration file may be overridden via
264 command-line options, it may be more convenient to keep standard information in a
267 Use of this option causes
269 to suppress error messages,
270 which may be useful in interactive environments where it
271 is preferable to interpret status codes returned by
273 rather than messing up a carefully formatted display.
275 This option is available in
279 operations, and tells
281 to output the result of the operation without updating the user or group
285 option to switch between standard passwd and readable formats.
287 Using this option with any of the update modes causes
291 after changing to the directory
293 This is intended to allow automatic updating of
296 If separate passwd and group files are being used by
300 option to specify the location of the
302 passwd database so that
304 will concurrently update it with the system password
308 The following options apply to the
313 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
314 .It Oo Fl n Oc Ar name
318 Specify the user/account name.
327 Specify the user/account numeric id.
332 changes the numeric id of the named user/account.
334 Usually, only one of these options is required,
335 as the account name will imply the uid, or vice versa.
336 However, there are times when both are needed.
337 For example, when changing the uid of an existing user with
339 or overriding the default uid when creating a new account with
341 To automatically allocate the uid to a new user with
348 Either the account or userid can also be provided immediately after the
354 keywords on the command line without using the
360 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
362 This field sets the contents of the passwd GECOS field,
363 which normally contains up to four comma-separated fields containing the
364 user's full name, office or location,
365 and work and home phone numbers.
366 These sub-fields are used by convention only, however, and are optional.
367 If this field is to contain spaces,
368 the comment must be enclosed in double quotes
370 Avoid using commas in this field as these are used as sub-field separators,
373 character also cannot be used as this is the field separator for the passwd
376 This option sets the account's home directory.
378 this is only used if the home directory is to be different from the
379 default determined from
383 with the account name as a subdirectory.
384 .It Fl e Ar accexpdate
385 Set the account's expiration date.
386 Format of the date is either a UNIX time in decimal, or a date in
388 format, where dd is the day,
389 mmm is the month, either in numeric or alphabetic format
390 ('Jan', 'Feb', etc) and year is either a two or four digit year.
391 This option also accepts a relative date in the form
396 octal (leading 0) or hexadecimal (leading 0x) digit followed by the
397 number of Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months or Years from the current date at
398 which the expiration date is to be set.
399 .It Fl p Ar passexpdate
400 Set the account's password expiration date.
401 This field is similar to the account expiration date option, except that it
402 applies to forced password changes.
403 This is set in the same manner as the
407 Set the account's primary group to the given group.
409 may be defined by either its name or group number.
410 .It Fl G Ar grouplist
411 Set secondary group memberships for an account.
413 is a comma, space, or tab-separated list of group names or group numbers.
414 The user is added to the groups specified in
416 and removed from all groups not specified.
417 The current login session is not affected by group membership changes,
418 which only take effect when the user reconnects.
419 Note: do not add a user to their primary group with
422 This option sets the login class for the user being created.
427 for more information on user login classes.
429 This option instructs
431 to attempt to create the user's home directory.
432 While primarily useful when adding a new account with
434 this may also be of use when moving an existing user's home directory elsewhere
436 The new home directory is populated with the contents of the
438 directory, which typically contains a set of shell configuration files that the
439 user may personalize to taste.
440 Files in this directory are usually named
441 .Pa dot . Ns Aq Ar config
444 prefix will be stripped.
447 is used on an account with
449 existing configuration files in the user's home directory are
451 overwritten from the skeleton files.
453 When a user's home directory is created,
454 it will by default be a subdirectory of the
456 directory as specified by the
458 option, bearing the name of the new account.
459 This can be overridden by the
461 option on the command line, if desired.
463 Create the user's home directory with the specified
465 modified by the current
467 If omitted, it is derived from the parent process'
469 This option is only useful in combination with the
475 directory, from which basic startup and configuration files are copied when
476 the user's home directory is created.
477 This option only has meaning when used with the
483 Set or changes the user's login shell to
485 If the path to the shell program is omitted,
491 and fills it in as appropriate.
492 Note that unless you have a specific reason to do so, you should avoid
493 specifying the path - this will allow
495 to validate that the program exists and is executable.
496 Specifying a full path (or supplying a blank "" shell) avoids this check
497 and allows for such entries as
499 that should be set for accounts not intended for interactive login.
501 This option provides a special interface by which interactive scripts can
502 set an account password using
504 Because the command line and environment are fundamentally insecure mechanisms
505 by which programs can accept information,
507 will only allow setting of account and group passwords via a file descriptor
508 (usually a pipe between an interactive script and the program).
514 all possess mechanisms by which this can be done.
517 will prompt for the user's password if
521 as the file descriptor on which to read the password.
522 Note that this password will be read only once and is intended
523 for use by a script rather than for interactive use.
524 If you wish to have new password confirmation along the lines of
526 this must be implemented as part of an interactive script that calls
531 is given as the argument
533 then the password will be set to
535 rendering the account inaccessible via password-based login.
537 Read an encrypted password string from the specified file descriptor.
540 but the password should be supplied already encrypted in a form
541 suitable for writing directly to the password database.
546 for more details about generating an encrypted password hash.
549 It is possible to use
551 to create a new account that duplicates an existing user id.
552 While this is normally considered an error and will be rejected, the
554 option overrides the check for duplicates and allows the duplication of
556 This may be useful if you allow the same user to login under
557 different contexts (different group allocations, different home
558 directory, different shell) while providing basically the same
559 permissions for access to the user's files in each account.
563 command also has the ability to set new user and group defaults by using the
566 Instead of adding a new user,
568 writes a new set of defaults to its configuration file,
572 option, you must not use either
576 or an error will result.
579 changes the meaning of several command line switches in the
583 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
585 Set default values in
587 configuration file, or a different named configuration file if the
591 Set the root directory in which user home directories are created.
592 The default value for this is
594 but it may be set elsewhere as desired.
595 .It Fl e Ar accexpdays
596 Set the default account expiration period in days.
601 argument is interpreted differently.
602 It must be numeric and represents the number of days after creation
603 that the account expires.
604 A value of 0 suppresses automatic calculation of the expiry date.
605 .It Fl p Ar passexpdays
606 Set the default password expiration period in days.
611 argument is interpreted differently.
612 It must be numeric and represents the number of days after creation
613 that the account expires.
614 A value of 0 suppresses automatic calculation of the expiry date.
616 Set the default group for new users.
617 If a blank group is specified using
619 then new users will be allocated their own private primary group
620 with the same name as their login name.
621 If a group is supplied, either its name or uid may be given as an argument.
622 .It Fl G Ar grouplist
623 Set the default groups in which new users are granted membership.
624 This is a separate set of groups from the primary group.
625 Avoid nominating the same group as both primary and extra groups.
626 In other words, these extra groups determine membership in groups
630 is a comma-separated list of group names or ids, and are always
633 by their symbolic names.
635 This option sets the default login class for new users.
640 from which prototype shell and other initialization files are copied when
642 creates a user's home directory.
645 for naming conventions of these files.
647 .Fl u Ar minuid Ns Cm \&, Ns Ar maxuid ,
648 .Fl i Ar mingid Ns Cm \&, Ns Ar maxgid
650 Set the minimum and maximum user and group ids allocated for new
651 accounts and groups created by
653 The default values for each is 1000 minimum and 32000 maximum.
657 are both numbers, where max must be greater than min,
658 and both must be between 0 and 32767
659 .Po the same applies to
665 user and group ids less than 100 are reserved for use by the system,
666 and numbers greater than 32000 may also be reserved for special purposes
667 .Pq used by some system daemons .
668 .It Fl w Ar passmethod
671 option selects the default method used to set passwords for newly created user
676 .Bl -tag -width random -offset indent -compact
678 disable login on newly created accounts
680 force the password to be the account name
682 force a blank password
684 generate a random password
691 methods are the most secure; in the former case,
693 generates a password and prints it to stdout,
694 which is suitable when users are issued passwords rather than being allowed
696 .Pq possibly poorly chosen
700 method requires that the superuser use
702 to render the account accessible with a password.
704 This sets the pathname of the database used by
706 if you are not sharing
708 .Pa /etc/master.passwd
711 You should only set this option for
718 command has three distinct options.
723 options have already been covered above.
724 The additional option is:
725 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
729 to remove the user's home directory and all of its contents.
732 utility errs on the side of caution when removing files from the system.
734 it will not do so if the uid of the account being removed is also used by
735 another account on the system, and the
737 directory in the password file is
738 a valid path that commences with the character
740 Secondly, it will only remove files and directories that are actually owned by
741 the user, or symbolic links owned by anyone under the user's home directory.
742 Finally, after deleting all contents owned by the user only empty directories
744 If any additional cleanup work is required, this is left to the administrator.
749 files are always removed when an account is deleted as
750 these are unconditionally attached to the user name.
751 Jobs queued for processing by
753 are also removed if the user's uid is unique and not also used by another
754 account on the system.
758 command adds one additional option:
759 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
761 This option allows changing of an existing account name to
763 The new name must not already exist, and any attempt to duplicate an
764 existing account name will be rejected.
769 command allows viewing of an account in one of two formats.
770 By default, the format is identical to the format used in
771 .Pa /etc/master.passwd
772 with the password field replaced with a
778 outputs the account details in a more human readable form.
781 option is used, the account details are shown in v7 format.
784 option lists all users currently on file.
789 to print the details of an account even if it does not exist.
793 returns the next available user and group ids separated by a colon.
794 This is normally of interest only to interactive scripts or front-ends
802 options (explained at the start of the previous section) are available
803 with the group manipulation commands.
804 Other common options to all group-related commands are:
805 .Bl -tag -width "-m newmembers"
806 .It Oo Fl n Oc Ar name
810 Specify the group name.
818 Specify the group numeric id.
823 changes the numeric id of the named group.
825 As with the account name and id fields, you will usually only need
826 to supply one of these, as the group name implies the uid and vice
828 You will only need to use both when setting a specific group id
829 against a new group or when changing the uid of an existing group.
830 .It Fl M Ar memberlist
831 This option provides an alternative way to add existing users to a
834 or replace an existing membership list
837 is a comma separated list of valid and existing user names or uids.
838 .It Fl m Ar newmembers
841 this option allows the
843 of existing users to a group without replacing the existing list of
845 Login names or user ids may be used, and duplicate users are
847 .It Fl d Ar oldmembers
850 this option allows the
852 of existing users from a group without replacing the existing list of
854 Login names or user ids may be used, and duplicate users are
861 option that allows allocation of an existing group id to a new group.
862 The default action is to reject an attempt to add a group,
863 and this option overrides the check for duplicate group ids.
864 There is rarely any need to duplicate a group id.
868 command adds one additional option:
869 .Bl -tag -width "-m newmembers"
871 This option allows changing of an existing group name to
873 The new name must not already exist,
874 and any attempt to duplicate an existing group
875 name will be rejected.
886 to specify the group id.
889 option does not apply to the
895 returns the next available group id on standard output.
900 supports a simple password locking mechanism for users; it works by
901 prepending the string
903 to the beginning of the password field in
905 to prevent successful authentication.
911 commands take a user name or uid of the account to lock or unlock,
918 options as described above are accepted by these commands.
920 For a summary of options available with each command, you can use
921 .Dl pw [command] help
924 lists all available options for the
930 utility allows 8-bit characters in the passwd GECOS field (user's full name,
931 office, work and home phone number subfields), but disallows them in
932 user login and group names.
933 Use 8-bit characters with caution, as connection to the Internet will
934 require that your mail transport program supports 8BITMIME, and will
935 convert headers containing 8-bit characters to 7-bit quoted-printable
939 Use of 8-bit characters in the GECOS field should be used in
940 conjunction with the user's default locale and character set
941 and should not be implemented without their use.
942 Using 8-bit characters may also affect other
943 programs that transmit the contents of the GECOS field over the
946 and a small number of TCP/IP clients, such as IRC, where full names
947 specified in the passwd file may be used by default.
951 utility writes a log to the
953 file when actions such as user or group additions or deletions occur.
954 The location of this logfile can be changed in
957 .Bl -tag -width /etc/master.passwd.new -compact
958 .It Pa /etc/master.passwd
961 A Version 7 format password file
962 .It Pa /etc/login.conf
963 The user capabilities database
967 Pw default options file
968 .It Pa /var/log/userlog
969 User/group modification logfile
972 Add new user Glurmo Smith (gsmith).
973 A gsmith login group is created if not already present.
974 The login shell is set to
976 A new home directory at
978 is created if it does not already exist.
979 Finally, a random password is generated and displayed:
980 .Bd -literal -offset indent
981 pw useradd -n gsmith -c "Glurmo Smith" -s csh -m -w random
984 Delete the gsmith user and their home directory, including contents.
985 .Bd -literal -offset indent
986 pw userdel -n gsmith -r
989 Add the existing user jsmith to the wheel group,
990 in addition to the other groups jsmith is already a member of.
991 .Bd -literal -offset indent
992 pw groupmod wheel -m jsmith
995 Generate random password and show it in both plain text and
996 encrypted form not modifying any database.
997 .Bd -literal -offset indent
998 pw usermod nobody -Nw random
1003 utility returns EXIT_SUCCESS on successful operation, otherwise
1006 following exit codes defined by
1009 .Bl -tag -width xxxx
1011 .Bl -bullet -compact
1013 Command line syntax errors (invalid keyword, unknown option).
1016 .Bl -bullet -compact
1018 Attempting to run one of the update modes as non-root.
1021 .Bl -bullet -compact
1023 Memory allocation error.
1025 Read error from password file descriptor.
1028 .Bl -bullet -compact
1030 Bad or invalid data provided or missing on the command line or
1031 via the password file descriptor.
1033 Attempted to remove, rename root account or change its uid.
1036 .Bl -bullet -compact
1038 Skeleton directory is invalid or does not exist.
1040 Base home directory is invalid or does not exist.
1042 Invalid or non-existent shell specified.
1045 .Bl -bullet -compact
1047 User, user id, group or group id specified does not exist.
1049 User or group recorded, added, or modified unexpectedly disappeared.
1052 .Bl -bullet -compact
1054 No more group or user ids available within specified range.
1057 .Bl -bullet -compact
1059 Unable to rewrite configuration file.
1061 Error updating group or user database files.
1063 Update error for passwd or group database files.
1066 .Bl -bullet -compact
1068 No base home directory configured.
1084 utility was written to mimic many of the options used in the SYSV
1086 support suite, but is modified for passwd and group fields specific to
1089 operating system, and combines all of the major elements
1090 into a single command.
projects / FreeBSD / FreeBSD.git / blob