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32 .Nd create, remove, modify & display system users and groups
54 .Op Fl h Ar fd | Fl H Ar fd
71 .Op Fl u Ar min , Ns Ar max
72 .Op Fl i Ar min , Ns Ar max
104 .Op Fl h Ar fd | Fl H Ar fd
133 .Op Fl h Ar fd | Fl H Ar fd
154 .Op Fl m Ar newmembers
155 .Op Fl h Ar fd | Fl H Ar fd
188 utility is a command-line based editor for the system
192 files, allowing the superuser an easy to use and standardized way of adding,
193 modifying and removing users and groups.
196 only operates on the local user and group files.
198 users and groups must be
204 utility handles updating the
208 and the secure and insecure
209 password database files, and must be run as root.
211 The first one or two keywords provided to
213 on the command line provide the context for the remainder of the arguments.
232 all mean the same thing.)
233 This flexibility is useful for interactive scripts calling
235 for user and group database manipulation.
236 Following these keywords, you may optionally specify the user or group name or numeric
237 id as an alternative to using the
243 The following flags are common to most or all modes of operation:
245 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
247 This flag sets an alternate location for the password, group and configuration files,
248 and may be used to maintain a user/group database in an alternate location.
249 If this switch is specified, the system
251 will not be sourced for default configuration data, but the file pw.conf in the
252 specified directory will be used instead (or none, if it does not exist).
255 flag may be used to override this behaviour.
256 As an exception to the general rule where options must follow the operation
259 flag may be used on the command line before the operation keyword.
265 to obtain policy information on how new user accounts and groups are to be created.
268 option specifies a different configuration file.
269 While most of the contents of the configuration file may be overridden via
270 command-line options, it may be more convenient to keep standard information in a
273 Use of this option causes
275 to suppress error messages, which may be useful in interactive environments where it
276 is preferable to interpret status codes returned by
278 rather than messing up a carefully formatted display.
280 This option is available in
284 operations, and tells
286 to output the result of the operation without updating the user or group
290 option to switch between standard passwd and readable formats.
292 Using this option with any of the update modes causes
296 after changing to the directory
298 This is intended to allow automatic updating of
301 If separate passwd and group files are being used by
305 option to specify the location of the
307 passwd database so that
309 will concurrently update it with the system password
313 The following options apply to the
319 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
321 Specify the user/account name.
323 Specify the user/account numeric id.
325 Usually, you only need to provide one or the other of these options, as the account
326 name will imply the uid, or vice versa.
327 However, there are times when you need to provide both.
328 For example, when changing the uid of an existing user with
330 or overriding the default uid when creating a new account.
333 to automatically allocate the uid to a new user with
340 You may also provide either the account or userid immediately after the
346 keywords on the command line without using the
353 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
355 This field sets the contents of the passwd GECOS field, which normally contains up
356 to four comma-separated fields containing the user's full name, office or location,
357 and work and home phone numbers.
358 These sub-fields are used by convention only, however, and are optional.
359 If this field is to contain spaces, you need to quote the comment itself with double
362 Avoid using commas in this field as these are used as sub-field separators, and the
365 character also cannot be used as this is the field separator for the passwd
368 This option sets the account's home directory.
369 Normally, you will only use this if the home directory is to be different from the
370 default determined from
374 with the account name as a subdirectory.
376 Set the account's expiration date.
377 Format of the date is either a UNIX time in decimal, or a date in
379 format, where dd is the day, mmm is the month, either in numeric or alphabetic format
380 ('Jan', 'Feb', etc) and year is either a two or four digit year.
381 This option also accepts a relative date in the form
385 is a decimal, octal (leading 0) or hexadecimal (leading 0x) digit followed by the
386 number of Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months or Years from the current date at
387 which the expiration date is to be set.
389 Set the account's password expiration date.
390 This field is similar to the account expiration date option, except that it
391 applies to forced password changes.
392 This is set in the same manner as the
396 Set the account's primary group to the given group.
398 may be defined by either its name or group number.
399 .It Fl G Ar grouplist
400 Set additional group memberships for an account.
402 is a comma-separated list of group names or group numbers.
403 The user's name is added to the group lists in
406 removed from any groups not specified in
408 Note: a user should not be added to their primary group with
410 Also, group membership changes do not take effect for current user login
411 sessions, requiring the user to reconnect to be affected by the changes.
413 This option sets the login class for the user being created.
418 for more information on user login classes.
420 This option instructs
422 to attempt to create the user's home directory.
423 While primarily useful when adding a new account with
425 this may also be of use when moving an existing user's home directory elsewhere on
427 The new home directory is populated with the contents of the
429 directory, which typically contains a set of shell configuration files that the
430 user may personalize to taste.
433 is used on an account with
435 existing configuration files in the user's home directory are
437 overwritten from the skeleton files.
439 When a user's home directory is created, it will by default be a subdirectory of the
441 directory as specified by the
443 option (see below), bearing the name of the new account.
444 This can be overridden by the
446 option on the command line, if desired.
450 directory, from which basic startup and configuration files are copied when
451 the user's home directory is created.
452 This option only has meaning when used with the
458 Set or changes the user's login shell to
460 If the path to the shell program is omitted,
466 and fills it in as appropriate.
467 Note that unless you have a specific reason to do so, you should avoid
468 specifying the path - this will allow
470 to validate that the program exists and is executable.
471 Specifying a full path (or supplying a blank "" shell) avoids this check
472 and allows for such entries as
474 that should be set for accounts not intended for interactive login.
476 This option provides a special interface by which interactive scripts can
477 set an account password using
479 Because the command line and environment are fundamentally insecure mechanisms
480 by which programs can accept information,
482 will only allow setting of account and group passwords via a file descriptor
483 (usually a pipe between an interactive script and the program).
489 all possess mechanisms by which this can be done.
492 will prompt for the user's password if
496 as the file descriptor on which to read the password.
497 Note that this password will be read only once and is intended
498 for use by a script rather than for interactive use.
499 If you wish to have new password confirmation along the lines of
501 this must be implemented as part of an interactive script that calls
506 is given as the argument
508 then the password will be set to
510 rendering the account inaccessible via password-based login.
512 Read an encrypted password string from the specified file descriptor.
515 but the password should be supplied already encrypted in a form
516 suitable for writing directly to the password database.
519 It is possible to use
521 to create a new account that duplicates an existing user id.
522 While this is normally considered an error and will be rejected, the
524 option overrides the check for duplicates and allows the duplication of
526 This may be useful if you allow the same user to login under
527 different contexts (different group allocations, different home
528 directory, different shell) while providing basically the same
529 permissions for access to the user's files in each account.
533 command also has the ability to set new user and group defaults by using the
536 Instead of adding a new user,
538 writes a new set of defaults to its configuration file,
542 option, you must not use either
546 or an error will result.
549 changes the meaning of several command line switches in the
553 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
555 Set default values in
557 configuration file, or a different named configuration file if the
561 Set the root directory in which user home directories are created.
562 The default value for this is
564 but it may be set elsewhere as desired.
566 Set the default account expiration period in days.
569 the argument must be numeric, which specifies the number of days after creation when
570 the account is to expire.
571 A value of 0 suppresses automatic calculation of the expiry date.
573 Set the default password expiration period in days.
575 Set the default group for new users.
576 If a blank group is specified using
578 then new users will be allocated their own private primary group
579 with the same name as their login name.
580 If a group is supplied, either its name or uid may be given as an argument.
581 .It Fl G Ar grouplist
582 Set the default groups in which new users are granted membership.
583 This is a separate set of groups from the primary group, and you should avoid
584 nominating the same group as both primary and extra groups.
585 In other words, these extra groups determine membership in groups
589 is a comma-separated list of group names or ids, and are always
592 by their symbolic names.
594 This option sets the default login class for new users.
598 directory, from which prototype shell and other initialization files are copied when
600 creates a user's home directory.
602 .Fl u Ar min , Ns Ar max ,
603 .Fl i Ar min , Ns Ar max
605 These options set the minimum and maximum user and group ids allocated for new accounts
606 and groups created by
608 The default values for each is 1000 minimum and 32000 maximum.
612 are both numbers, where max must be greater than min, and both must be between 0
614 In general, user and group ids less than 100 are reserved for use by the system,
615 and numbers greater than 32000 may also be reserved for special purposes (used by
616 some system daemons).
620 option sets the default method used to set passwords for newly created user accounts.
624 .Bl -tag -width random -offset indent -compact
626 disable login on newly created accounts
628 force the password to be the account name
630 force a blank password
632 generate a random password
639 methods are the most secure; in the former case,
641 generates a password and prints it to stdout, which is suitable where you issue
642 users with passwords to access their accounts rather than having the user nominate
643 their own (possibly poorly chosen) password.
646 method requires that the superuser use
648 to render the account accessible with a password.
650 This sets the pathname of the database used by
652 if you are not sharing
654 .Pa /etc/master.passwd
657 You should only set this option for
664 command has only three valid options.
669 options have already been covered above.
670 The additional option is:
671 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
675 to remove the user's home directory and all of its contents.
678 utility errs on the side of caution when removing files from the system.
679 Firstly, it will not do so if the uid of the account being removed is also used by
680 another account on the system, and the 'home' directory in the password file is
681 a valid path that commences with the character
683 Secondly, it will only remove files and directories that are actually owned by
684 the user, or symbolic links owned by anyone under the user's home directory.
685 Finally, after deleting all contents owned by the user only empty directories
687 If any additional cleanup work is required, this is left to the administrator.
690 Mail spool files and crontabs are always removed when an account is deleted as these
691 are unconditionally attached to the user name.
692 Jobs queued for processing by
694 are also removed if the user's uid is unique and not also used by another account on the
699 command allows viewing of an account in one of two formats.
700 By default, the format is identical to the format used in
701 .Pa /etc/master.passwd
702 with the password field replaced with a
708 outputs the account details in a more human readable form.
711 option is used, the account details are shown in v7 format.
714 option lists all users currently on file.
719 to print the details of an account even if it does not exist.
723 returns the next available user and group ids separated by a colon.
724 This is normally of interest only to interactive scripts or front-ends
732 options (explained at the start of the previous section) are available
733 with the group manipulation commands.
734 Other common options to all group-related commands are:
735 .Bl -tag -width "-m newmembers"
737 Specify the group name.
739 Specify the group numeric id.
741 As with the account name and id fields, you will usually only need
742 to supply one of these, as the group name implies the uid and vice
744 You will only need to use both when setting a specific group id
745 against a new group or when changing the uid of an existing group.
746 .It Fl M Ar memberlist
747 This option provides an alternative way to add existing users to a
748 new group (in groupadd) or replace an existing membership list (in
751 is a comma separated list of valid and existing user names or uids.
752 .It Fl m Ar newmembers
755 this option allows the
757 of existing users to a group without replacing the existing list of
759 Login names or user ids may be used, and duplicate users are
766 option that allows allocation of an existing group id to a new group.
767 The default action is to reject an attempt to add a group, and this option overrides
768 the check for duplicate group ids.
769 There is rarely any need to duplicate a group id.
773 command adds one additional option:
775 .Bl -tag -width "-m newmembers"
777 This option allows changing of an existing group name to
779 The new name must not already exist, and any attempt to duplicate an existing group
780 name will be rejected.
791 to specify the group id.
794 option does not apply to the
800 returns the next available group id on standard output.
805 supports a simple password locking mechanism for users; it works by
806 prepending the string
808 to the beginning of the password field in
810 to prevent successful authentication.
816 commands take a user name or uid of the account to lock or unlock,
823 options as described above are accepted by these commands.
827 utility returns EXIT_SUCCESS on successful operation, otherwise
830 following exit codes defined by
837 Command line syntax errors (invalid keyword, unknown option).
842 Attempting to run one of the update modes as non-root.
847 Memory allocation error.
849 Read error from password file descriptor.
854 Bad or invalid data provided or missing on the command line or
855 via the password file descriptor.
857 Attempted to remove, rename root account or change its uid.
862 Skeleton directory is invalid or does not exist.
864 Base home directory is invalid or does not exist.
866 Invalid or non-existent shell specified.
871 User, user id, group or group id specified does not exist.
873 User or group recorded, added, or modified unexpectedly disappeared.
878 No more group or user ids available within specified range.
883 Unable to rewrite configuration file.
885 Error updating group or user database files.
887 Update error for passwd or group database files.
892 No base home directory configured.
896 For a summary of options available with each command, you can use
897 .Dl pw [command] help
900 lists all available options for the useradd operation.
904 utility allows 8-bit characters in the passwd GECOS field (user's full name,
905 office, work and home phone number subfields), but disallows them in
906 user login and group names.
907 Use 8-bit characters with caution, as connection to the Internet will
908 require that your mail transport program supports 8BITMIME, and will
909 convert headers containing 8-bit characters to 7-bit quoted-printable
913 Use of 8-bit characters in the GECOS field should be used in
914 conjunction with the user's default locale and character set
915 and should not be implemented without their use.
916 Using 8-bit characters may also affect other
917 programs that transmit the contents of the GECOS field over the
920 and a small number of TCP/IP clients, such as IRC, where full names
921 specified in the passwd file may be used by default.
925 utility writes a log to the
927 file when actions such as user or group additions or deletions occur.
928 The location of this logfile can be changed in
931 .Bl -tag -width /etc/master.passwd.new -compact
932 .It Pa /etc/master.passwd
935 A Version 7 format password file
936 .It Pa /etc/login.conf
937 The user capabilities database
940 .It Pa /etc/master.passwd.new
941 Temporary copy of the master password file
942 .It Pa /etc/passwd.new
943 Temporary copy of the Version 7 password file
944 .It Pa /etc/group.new
945 Temporary copy of the group file
947 Pw default options file
948 .It Pa /var/log/userlog
949 User/group modification logfile
963 utility was written to mimic many of the options used in the SYSV
965 support suite, but is modified for passwd and group fields specific to
968 operating system, and combines all of the major elements
969 into a single command.
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