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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.
405 for more information on user login classes.
407 This option instructs
409 to attempt to create the user's home directory.
410 While primarily useful when adding a new account with
412 this may also be of use when moving an existing user's home directory elsewhere on
414 The new home directory is populated with the contents of the
416 directory, which typically contains a set of shell configuration files that the
417 user may personalize to taste.
420 is used on an account with
422 existing configuration files in the user's home directory are
424 overwritten from the skeleton files.
426 When a user's home directory is created, it will by default be a subdirectory of the
428 directory as specified by the
430 option (see below), bearing the name of the new account.
431 This can be overridden by the
433 option on the command line, if desired.
437 directory, from which basic startup and configuration files are copied when
438 the user's home directory is created.
439 This option only has meaning when used with the
445 Set or changes the user's login shell to
447 If the path to the shell program is omitted,
453 and fills it in as appropriate.
454 Note that unless you have a specific reason to do so, you should avoid
455 specifying the path - this will allow
457 to validate that the program exists and is executable.
458 Specifying a full path (or supplying a blank "" shell) avoids this check
459 and allows for such entries as
461 that should be set for accounts not intended for interactive login.
463 This option provides a special interface by which interactive scripts can
464 set an account password using
466 Because the command line and environment are fundamentally insecure mechanisms
467 by which programs can accept information,
469 will only allow setting of account and group passwords via a file descriptor
470 (usually a pipe between an interactive script and the program).
476 all possess mechanisms by which this can be done.
479 will prompt for the user's password if
483 as the file descriptor on which to read the password.
484 Note that this password will be read only once and is intended
485 for use by a script rather than for interactive use.
486 If you wish to have new password confirmation along the lines of
488 this must be implemented as part of an interactive script that calls
493 is given as the argument
495 then the password will be set to
497 rendering the account inaccessible via password-based login.
500 It is possible to use
502 to create a new account that duplicates an existing user id.
503 While this is normally considered an error and will be rejected, the
505 option overrides the check for duplicates and allows the duplication of
507 This may be useful if you allow the same user to login under
508 different contexts (different group allocations, different home
509 directory, different shell) while providing basically the same
510 permissions for access to the user's files in each account.
514 command also has the ability to set new user and group defaults by using the
517 Instead of adding a new user,
519 writes a new set of defaults to its configuration file,
523 option, you must not use either
527 or an error will result.
530 changes the meaning of several command line switches in the
534 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
536 Set default values in
538 configuration file, or a different named configuration file if the
542 Set the root directory in which user home directories are created.
543 The default value for this is
545 but it may be set elsewhere as desired.
547 Set the default account expiration period in days.
550 the argument must be numeric, which specifies the number of days after creation when
551 the account is to expire.
552 A value of 0 suppresses automatic calculation of the expiry date.
554 Set the default password expiration period in days.
556 Set the default group for new users.
557 If a blank group is specified using
559 then new users will be allocated their own private primary group
560 with the same name as their login name.
561 If a group is supplied, either its name or uid may be given as an argument.
562 .It Fl G Ar grouplist
563 Set the default groups in which new users are granted membership.
564 This is a separate set of groups from the primary group, and you should avoid
565 nominating the same group as both primary and extra groups.
566 In other words, these extra groups determine membership in groups
570 is a comma-separated list of group names or ids, and are always
573 by their symbolic names.
575 This option sets the default login class for new users.
579 directory, from which prototype shell and other initialization files are copied when
581 creates a user's home directory.
583 .Fl u Ar min , Ns Ar max ,
584 .Fl i Ar min , Ns Ar max
586 These options set the minimum and maximum user and group ids allocated for new accounts
587 and groups created by
589 The default values for each is 1000 minimum and 32000 maximum.
593 are both numbers, where max must be greater than min, and both must be between 0
595 In general, user and group ids less than 100 are reserved for use by the system,
596 and numbers greater than 32000 may also be reserved for special purposes (used by
597 some system daemons).
601 option sets the default method used to set passwords for newly created user accounts.
605 .Bl -tag -width random -offset indent -compact
607 disable login on newly created accounts
609 force the password to be the account name
611 force a blank password
613 generate a random password
620 methods are the most secure; in the former case,
622 generates a password and prints it to stdout, which is suitable where you issue
623 users with passwords to access their accounts rather than having the user nominate
624 their own (possibly poorly chosen) password.
627 method requires that the superuser use
629 to render the account accessible with a password.
631 This sets the pathname of the database used by NIS if you are not sharing
633 .Pa /etc/master.passwd
635 You should only set this option for NIS servers.
640 command has only three valid options.
645 options have already been covered above.
646 The additional option is:
647 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
651 to remove the user's home directory and all of its contents.
653 errs on the side of caution when removing files from the system.
654 Firstly, it will not do so if the uid of the account being removed is also used by
655 another account on the system, and the 'home' directory in the password file is
656 a valid path that commences with the character
658 Secondly, it will only remove files and directories that are actually owned by
659 the user, or symbolic links owned by anyone under the user's home directory.
660 Finally, after deleting all contents owned by the user only empty directories
662 If any additional cleanup work is required, this is left to the administrator.
665 Mail spool files and crontabs are always removed when an account is deleted as these
666 are unconditionally attached to the user name.
667 Jobs queued for processing by
669 are also removed if the user's uid is unique and not also used by another account on the
674 command allows viewing of an account in one of two formats.
675 By default, the format is identical to the format used in
676 .Pa /etc/master.passwd
677 with the password field replaced with a
683 outputs the account details in a more human readable form.
686 option lists all users currently on file.
690 returns the next available user and group ids separated by a colon.
691 This is normally of interest only to interactive scripts or front-ends
699 options (explained at the start of the previous section) are available
700 with the group manipulation commands.
701 Other common options to all group-related commands are:
702 .Bl -tag -width "-m newmembers"
704 Specify the group name.
706 Specify the group numeric id.
708 As with the account name and id fields, you will usually only need
709 to supply one of these, as the group name implies the uid and vice
711 You will only need to use both when setting a specific group id
712 against a new group or when changing the uid of an existing group.
713 .It Fl M Ar memberlist
714 This option provides an alternative way to add existing users to a
715 new group (in groupadd) or replace an existing membership list (in
718 is a comma separated list of valid and existing user names or uids.
719 .It Fl m Ar newmembers
722 this option allows the
724 of existing users to a group without replacing the existing list of
726 Login names or user ids may be used, and duplicate users are
733 option that allows allocation of an existing group id to a new group.
734 The default action is to reject an attempt to add a group, and this option overrides
735 the check for duplicate group ids.
736 There is rarely any need to duplicate a group id.
740 command adds one additional option:
742 .Bl -tag -width "-m newmembers"
744 This option allows changing of an existing group name to
746 The new name must not already exist, and any attempt to duplicate an existing group
747 name will be rejected.
758 to specify the group id.
762 returns the next available group id on standard output.
765 supports a simple password locking mechanism for users; it works by
766 prepending the string
768 to the beginning of the password field in
770 to prevent successful authentication.
776 commands take a user name or uid of the account to lock or unlock,
782 options as described above are accepted by these commands.
785 returns EXIT_SUCCESS on successful operation, otherwise
788 following exit codes defined by
795 Command line syntax errors (invalid keyword, unknown option).
800 Attempting to run one of the update modes as non-root.
805 Memory allocation error.
807 Read error from password file descriptor.
812 Bad or invalid data provided or missing on the command line or
813 via the password file descriptor.
815 Attempted to remove, rename root account or change its uid.
820 Skeleton directory is invalid or does not exist.
822 Base home directory is invalid or does not exist.
824 Invalid or non-existent shell specified.
829 User, user id, group or group id specified does not exist.
831 User or group recorded, added, or modified unexpectedly disappeared.
836 No more group or user ids available within specified range.
841 Unable to rewrite configuration file.
843 Error updating group or user database files.
845 Update error for passwd or group database files.
850 No base home directory configured.
854 For a summary of options available with each command, you can use
855 .Dl pw [command] help
858 lists all available options for the useradd operation.
861 allows 8-bit characters in the passwd GECOS field (user's full name,
862 office, work and home phone number subfields), but disallows them in
863 user login and group names.
864 Use 8-bit characters with caution, as connection to the Internet will
865 require that your mail transport program supports 8BITMIME, and will
866 convert headers containing 8-bit characters to 7-bit quoted-printable
870 Use of 8-bit characters in the GECOS field should be used in
871 conjunction with the user's default locale and character set
872 and should not be implemented without their use.
873 Using 8-bit characters may also affect other
874 programs that transmit the contents of the GECOS field over the
877 and a small number of TCP/IP clients, such as IRC, where full names
878 specified in the passwd file may be used by default.
880 .Bl -tag -width /etc/master.passwd.new -compact
881 .It Pa /etc/master.passwd
884 A Version 7 format password file
885 .It Pa /etc/login.conf
886 The user capabilities database
889 .It Pa /etc/master.passwd.new
890 Temporary copy of the master password file
891 .It Pa /etc/passwd.new
892 Temporary copy of the Version 7 password file
893 .It Pa /etc/group.new
894 Temporary copy of the group file
896 Pw default options file
909 was written to mimic many of the options used in the SYSV
911 support suite, but is modified for passwd and group fields specific to
914 operating system, and combines all of the major elements
915 into a single command.
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