useradd

useradd is used to create a new user or update default new user information

On Debian, adduser should be used instead.

$ useradd [options] username

Details

useradd edits /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/group, and /etc/gshadow files for new user account.

useradd creates and populates a home director for new user

useradd sets permissions and ownerships to home directory

Useful Options

useradd -d

$ useradd -d /projects/users helloworld

# To verify location of the new home directory
$ cat /etc/passwd | grep helloworld
helloworld:x:500:500::/projects/users:/bin/bash
  • The -d flag option allows you to choose the location of the new home directory
  • By default the useradd command creates the home directory under /home directory with username

useradd -u

$ useradd -u 750 newUser

# To verify UID
$ cat /etc/passwd | grep newUser
newUser:x:750:750::/home/newUser:/bin/bash
  • Every user has its own unique identification numer (UID). By default, new user accounts are assigned UID 500, 501, 502, and so on
  • The -u flag option allows you to choose a specific UID

useradd -e

$ useradd -e 2016-10-10 expireUser

# To verify when account expires
$ chage -l expireUser
Last password change								: Mar 27, 2016
Password expires									: never
Password inactive									: never
Account expires										: Oct 10, 2016
Minimum number of days between password change		: 0
Maximum number of days between password change		: 99999
Number of days of warning before password expires	: 7
  • By default, useradd creates accounts that never expire
  • The -e flag option allows you to create temporary accounts
  • Use the date in YYYY-MM-DD format for desired date

useradd -f

$ useradd -f 20 inactive
  • The -f option will permanently disable an account after the desired amount of days after a password has expired.

Final details

After adding a new user with useradd, the new account will be locked. To unlock the user account, you’ll need to set a password with the passwd command.

$ useradd newperson
$ passwd newperson
Changing password for user newperson
New password:
Retype new password:
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully