Creating a new user with the Linux command-line is very easy, the command-line adduser
command is easier to use than the useradd
command and automates a lot of the steps involved in creating a new user and their home directory. The sequence shown below is the simple task of creating a new user and shows how easy it is using BASH. This command will copy files from the /etc/skel
folder, giving the user the ~/.bashrc
and ~/.bash_profile
configuration files in their home directory.
-22:02:12-- gordon@deusexmachina [~]$ sudo adduser mint Adding user `mint' ... Adding new group `mint' (1002) ... Adding new user `mint' (1002) with group `mint' ... Creating home directory `/home/mint' ... Copying files from `/etc/skel' ... Enter new UNIX password: Retype new UNIX password: passwd: password updated successfully Changing the user information for mint Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default Full Name []: John Smith Room Number []: 13 Work Phone []: 789945678 Home Phone []: Other []: Is the information correct? [Y/n] y -22:02:57-- gordon@deusexmachina [~]$ |
The userdel
command is used to remove a user from the system. This procedure is shown below.
-22:17:56-- gordon@deusexmachina [~]$ sudo userdel -r mint |
The -r
parameter will recursively erase the home folder of the user and their files. Similar to using rm -rf /home/mint and erasing their folder. But the userdel -r mint command is safer than typing rm -rf --no-preserve-root
willy nilly as the root user. That is dangerous. Sure, rm -rf /files
would work, but better to use something like this instead.
jason@jason-desktop:~/Desktop$ rm -rvf stuff/ removed directory 'stuff/stuff2' removed directory 'stuff/stuff' removed directory 'stuff/stuff3' removed directory 'stuff/' |
That will delete the directory and all subdirectories in a safer way. The rmdir --ignore-fail-on-non-empty stuff/
command did not work for me.