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32 .Nd create, remove, modify & display system users and groups
56 .Op Fl h Ar fd | Fl H Ar fd
75 .Op Fl u Ar min , Ns Ar max
76 .Op Fl i Ar min , Ns Ar max
103 .Op Fl G Ar grouplist
111 .Op Fl h Ar fd | Fl H Ar fd
142 .Op Fl h Ar fd | Fl H Ar fd
165 .Op Fl m Ar newmembers
166 .Op Fl d Ar oldmembers
167 .Op Fl h Ar fd | Fl H Ar fd
203 utility is a command-line based editor for the system
207 files, allowing the superuser an easy to use and standardized way of adding,
208 modifying and removing users and groups.
211 only operates on the local user and group files.
213 users and groups must be
219 utility handles updating the
223 and the secure and insecure
224 password database files, and must be run as root.
226 The first one or two keywords provided to
228 on the command line provide the context for the remainder of the arguments.
247 all mean the same thing.)
248 This flexibility is useful for interactive scripts calling
250 for user and group database manipulation.
251 Following these keywords, you may optionally specify the user or group name or numeric
252 id as an alternative to using the
258 The following flags are common to most or all modes of operation:
259 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
261 Specifies an alternate root directory within which
264 Any paths specified will be relative to
267 This flag sets an alternate location for the password, group and configuration files,
268 and may be used to maintain a user/group database in an alternate location.
269 If this switch is specified, the system
271 will not be sourced for default configuration data, but the file pw.conf in the
272 specified directory will be used instead (or none, if it does not exist).
275 flag may be used to override this behaviour.
276 As an exception to the general rule where options must follow the operation
279 flag may be used on the command line before the operation keyword.
285 to obtain policy information on how new user accounts and groups are to be created.
288 option specifies a different configuration file.
289 While most of the contents of the configuration file may be overridden via
290 command-line options, it may be more convenient to keep standard information in a
293 Use of this option causes
295 to suppress error messages, which may be useful in interactive environments where it
296 is preferable to interpret status codes returned by
298 rather than messing up a carefully formatted display.
300 This option is available in
304 operations, and tells
306 to output the result of the operation without updating the user or group
310 option to switch between standard passwd and readable formats.
312 Using this option with any of the update modes causes
316 after changing to the directory
318 This is intended to allow automatic updating of
321 If separate passwd and group files are being used by
325 option to specify the location of the
327 passwd database so that
329 will concurrently update it with the system password
333 The following options apply to the
338 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
340 Specify the user/account name.
342 Specify the user/account numeric id.
344 Usually, you only need to provide one or the other of these options, as the account
345 name will imply the uid, or vice versa.
346 However, there are times when you need to provide both.
347 For example, when changing the uid of an existing user with
349 or overriding the default uid when creating a new account.
352 to automatically allocate the uid to a new user with
359 You may also provide either the account or userid immediately after the
365 keywords on the command line without using the
371 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
373 This field sets the contents of the passwd GECOS field, which normally contains up
374 to four comma-separated fields containing the user's full name, office or location,
375 and work and home phone numbers.
376 These sub-fields are used by convention only, however, and are optional.
377 If this field is to contain spaces, you need to quote the comment itself with double
380 Avoid using commas in this field as these are used as sub-field separators, and the
383 character also cannot be used as this is the field separator for the passwd
386 This option sets the account's home directory.
387 Normally, you will only use this if the home directory is to be different from the
388 default determined from
392 with the account name as a subdirectory.
394 Set the account's expiration date.
395 Format of the date is either a UNIX time in decimal, or a date in
397 format, where dd is the day, mmm is the month, either in numeric or alphabetic format
398 ('Jan', 'Feb', etc) and year is either a two or four digit year.
399 This option also accepts a relative date in the form
403 is a decimal, octal (leading 0) or hexadecimal (leading 0x) digit followed by the
404 number of Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months or Years from the current date at
405 which the expiration date is to be set.
407 Set the account's password expiration date.
408 This field is similar to the account expiration date option, except that it
409 applies to forced password changes.
410 This is set in the same manner as the
414 Set the account's primary group to the given group.
416 may be defined by either its name or group number.
417 .It Fl G Ar grouplist
418 Set additional group memberships for an account.
420 is a comma, space or tab-separated list of group names or group numbers.
421 The user's name is added to the group lists in
424 removed from any groups not specified in
426 Note: a user should not be added to their primary group with
428 Also, group membership changes do not take effect for current user login
429 sessions, requiring the user to reconnect to be affected by the changes.
431 This option sets the login class for the user being created.
436 for more information on user login classes.
438 This option instructs
440 to attempt to create the user's home directory.
441 While primarily useful when adding a new account with
443 this may also be of use when moving an existing user's home directory elsewhere on
445 The new home directory is populated with the contents of the
447 directory, which typically contains a set of shell configuration files that the
448 user may personalize to taste.
449 Files in this directory are usually named
450 .Pa dot . Ns Aq Ar config
453 prefix will be stripped.
456 is used on an account with
458 existing configuration files in the user's home directory are
460 overwritten from the skeleton files.
462 When a user's home directory is created, it will by default be a subdirectory of the
464 directory as specified by the
466 option (see below), bearing the name of the new account.
467 This can be overridden by the
469 option on the command line, if desired.
471 Create the user's home directory with the specified
473 modified by the current
475 If omitted, it is derived from the parent process'
477 This option is only useful in combination with the
483 directory, from which basic startup and configuration files are copied when
484 the user's home directory is created.
485 This option only has meaning when used with the
491 Set or changes the user's login shell to
493 If the path to the shell program is omitted,
499 and fills it in as appropriate.
500 Note that unless you have a specific reason to do so, you should avoid
501 specifying the path - this will allow
503 to validate that the program exists and is executable.
504 Specifying a full path (or supplying a blank "" shell) avoids this check
505 and allows for such entries as
507 that should be set for accounts not intended for interactive login.
509 This option provides a special interface by which interactive scripts can
510 set an account password using
512 Because the command line and environment are fundamentally insecure mechanisms
513 by which programs can accept information,
515 will only allow setting of account and group passwords via a file descriptor
516 (usually a pipe between an interactive script and the program).
522 all possess mechanisms by which this can be done.
525 will prompt for the user's password if
529 as the file descriptor on which to read the password.
530 Note that this password will be read only once and is intended
531 for use by a script rather than for interactive use.
532 If you wish to have new password confirmation along the lines of
534 this must be implemented as part of an interactive script that calls
539 is given as the argument
541 then the password will be set to
543 rendering the account inaccessible via password-based login.
545 Read an encrypted password string from the specified file descriptor.
548 but the password should be supplied already encrypted in a form
549 suitable for writing directly to the password database.
552 It is possible to use
554 to create a new account that duplicates an existing user id.
555 While this is normally considered an error and will be rejected, the
557 option overrides the check for duplicates and allows the duplication of
559 This may be useful if you allow the same user to login under
560 different contexts (different group allocations, different home
561 directory, different shell) while providing basically the same
562 permissions for access to the user's files in each account.
566 command also has the ability to set new user and group defaults by using the
569 Instead of adding a new user,
571 writes a new set of defaults to its configuration file,
575 option, you must not use either
579 or an error will result.
582 changes the meaning of several command line switches in the
586 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
588 Set default values in
590 configuration file, or a different named configuration file if the
594 Set the root directory in which user home directories are created.
595 The default value for this is
597 but it may be set elsewhere as desired.
599 Set the default account expiration period in days.
602 the argument must be numeric, which specifies the number of days after creation when
603 the account is to expire.
604 A value of 0 suppresses automatic calculation of the expiry date.
606 Set the default password expiration period in days.
608 Set the default group for new users.
609 If a blank group is specified using
611 then new users will be allocated their own private primary group
612 with the same name as their login name.
613 If a group is supplied, either its name or uid may be given as an argument.
614 .It Fl G Ar grouplist
615 Set the default groups in which new users are granted membership.
616 This is a separate set of groups from the primary group, and you should avoid
617 nominating the same group as both primary and extra groups.
618 In other words, these extra groups determine membership in groups
622 is a comma-separated list of group names or ids, and are always
625 by their symbolic names.
627 This option sets the default login class for new users.
631 directory, from which prototype shell and other initialization files are copied when
633 creates a user's home directory.
636 for naming conventions of these files.
638 .Fl u Ar min , Ns Ar max ,
639 .Fl i Ar min , Ns Ar max
641 These options set the minimum and maximum user and group ids allocated for new accounts
642 and groups created by
644 The default values for each is 1000 minimum and 32000 maximum.
648 are both numbers, where max must be greater than min, and both must be between 0
650 In general, user and group ids less than 100 are reserved for use by the system,
651 and numbers greater than 32000 may also be reserved for special purposes (used by
652 some system daemons).
656 option sets the default method used to set passwords for newly created user accounts.
660 .Bl -tag -width random -offset indent -compact
662 disable login on newly created accounts
664 force the password to be the account name
666 force a blank password
668 generate a random password
675 methods are the most secure; in the former case,
677 generates a password and prints it to stdout, which is suitable where you issue
678 users with passwords to access their accounts rather than having the user nominate
679 their own (possibly poorly chosen) password.
682 method requires that the superuser use
684 to render the account accessible with a password.
686 This sets the pathname of the database used by
688 if you are not sharing
690 .Pa /etc/master.passwd
693 You should only set this option for
700 command has only three valid options.
705 options have already been covered above.
706 The additional option is:
707 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
711 to remove the user's home directory and all of its contents.
714 utility errs on the side of caution when removing files from the system.
715 Firstly, it will not do so if the uid of the account being removed is also used by
716 another account on the system, and the 'home' directory in the password file is
717 a valid path that commences with the character
719 Secondly, it will only remove files and directories that are actually owned by
720 the user, or symbolic links owned by anyone under the user's home directory.
721 Finally, after deleting all contents owned by the user only empty directories
723 If any additional cleanup work is required, this is left to the administrator.
726 Mail spool files and crontabs are always removed when an account is deleted as these
727 are unconditionally attached to the user name.
728 Jobs queued for processing by
730 are also removed if the user's uid is unique and not also used by another account on the
735 command adds one additional option:
736 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
738 This option allows changing of an existing account name to
740 The new name must not already exist, and any attempt to duplicate an
741 existing account name will be rejected.
746 command allows viewing of an account in one of two formats.
747 By default, the format is identical to the format used in
748 .Pa /etc/master.passwd
749 with the password field replaced with a
755 outputs the account details in a more human readable form.
758 option is used, the account details are shown in v7 format.
761 option lists all users currently on file.
766 to print the details of an account even if it does not exist.
770 returns the next available user and group ids separated by a colon.
771 This is normally of interest only to interactive scripts or front-ends
779 options (explained at the start of the previous section) are available
780 with the group manipulation commands.
781 Other common options to all group-related commands are:
782 .Bl -tag -width "-m newmembers"
784 Specify the group name.
786 Specify the group numeric id.
788 As with the account name and id fields, you will usually only need
789 to supply one of these, as the group name implies the uid and vice
791 You will only need to use both when setting a specific group id
792 against a new group or when changing the uid of an existing group.
793 .It Fl M Ar memberlist
794 This option provides an alternative way to add existing users to a
795 new group (in groupadd) or replace an existing membership list (in
798 is a comma separated list of valid and existing user names or uids.
799 .It Fl m Ar newmembers
802 this option allows the
804 of existing users to a group without replacing the existing list of
806 Login names or user ids may be used, and duplicate users are
808 .It Fl d Ar oldmembers
811 this option allows the
813 of existing users from a group without replacing the existing list of
815 Login names or user ids may be used, and duplicate users are
822 option that allows allocation of an existing group id to a new group.
823 The default action is to reject an attempt to add a group, and this option overrides
824 the check for duplicate group ids.
825 There is rarely any need to duplicate a group id.
829 command adds one additional option:
830 .Bl -tag -width "-m newmembers"
832 This option allows changing of an existing group name to
834 The new name must not already exist, and any attempt to duplicate an existing group
835 name will be rejected.
846 to specify the group id.
849 option does not apply to the
855 returns the next available group id on standard output.
860 supports a simple password locking mechanism for users; it works by
861 prepending the string
863 to the beginning of the password field in
865 to prevent successful authentication.
871 commands take a user name or uid of the account to lock or unlock,
878 options as described above are accepted by these commands.
880 For a summary of options available with each command, you can use
881 .Dl pw [command] help
884 lists all available options for the useradd operation.
888 utility allows 8-bit characters in the passwd GECOS field (user's full name,
889 office, work and home phone number subfields), but disallows them in
890 user login and group names.
891 Use 8-bit characters with caution, as connection to the Internet will
892 require that your mail transport program supports 8BITMIME, and will
893 convert headers containing 8-bit characters to 7-bit quoted-printable
897 Use of 8-bit characters in the GECOS field should be used in
898 conjunction with the user's default locale and character set
899 and should not be implemented without their use.
900 Using 8-bit characters may also affect other
901 programs that transmit the contents of the GECOS field over the
904 and a small number of TCP/IP clients, such as IRC, where full names
905 specified in the passwd file may be used by default.
909 utility writes a log to the
911 file when actions such as user or group additions or deletions occur.
912 The location of this logfile can be changed in
915 .Bl -tag -width /etc/master.passwd.new -compact
916 .It Pa /etc/master.passwd
919 A Version 7 format password file
920 .It Pa /etc/login.conf
921 The user capabilities database
925 Pw default options file
926 .It Pa /var/log/userlog
927 User/group modification logfile
932 utility returns EXIT_SUCCESS on successful operation, otherwise
935 following exit codes defined by
942 Command line syntax errors (invalid keyword, unknown option).
947 Attempting to run one of the update modes as non-root.
952 Memory allocation error.
954 Read error from password file descriptor.
959 Bad or invalid data provided or missing on the command line or
960 via the password file descriptor.
962 Attempted to remove, rename root account or change its uid.
967 Skeleton directory is invalid or does not exist.
969 Base home directory is invalid or does not exist.
971 Invalid or non-existent shell specified.
976 User, user id, group or group id specified does not exist.
978 User or group recorded, added, or modified unexpectedly disappeared.
983 No more group or user ids available within specified range.
988 Unable to rewrite configuration file.
990 Error updating group or user database files.
992 Update error for passwd or group database files.
997 No base home directory configured.
1013 utility was written to mimic many of the options used in the SYSV
1015 support suite, but is modified for passwd and group fields specific to
1018 operating system, and combines all of the major elements
1019 into a single command.
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