adduser/adduser.8

   1 .\" Copyright (c) 1995-1996 Wolfram Schneider <wosch@FreeBSD.org>. Berlin.
   2 .\" All rights reserved.
   3 .\"
   4 .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
   5 .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
   6 .\" are met:
   7 .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
   8 .\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
   9 .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
  10 .\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
  11 .\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
  12 .\"
  13 .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
  14 .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
  15 .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
  16 .\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
  17 .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
  18 .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
  19 .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
  20 .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
  21 .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
  22 .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
  23 .\" SUCH DAMAGE.
  24 .\"
  25 .\" $FreeBSD$
  26 .\"
  27 .Dd January 9, 1995
  28 .Dt ADDUSER 8
  29 .Os
  30 .Sh NAME
  31 .Nm adduser
  32 .Nd command for adding new users
  33 .Sh SYNOPSIS
  34 .Nm
  35 .Bk -words
  36 .Op Fl check_only
  37 .Op Fl class Ar login_class
  38 .Op Fl config_create
  39 .Op Fl dotdir Ar dotdir
  40 .Op Fl f | force
  41 .Op Fl group Ar login_group
  42 .Op Fl h | help
  43 .Op Fl home Ar home
  44 .Op Fl message Ar message_file
  45 .Op Fl noconfig
  46 .Op Fl shell Ar shell
  47 .Op Fl s | silent | q | quiet
  48 .Op Fl uid Ar uid_start
  49 .Op Fl v | verbose
  50 .Ek
  51 .Sh DESCRIPTION
  52 .Nm Adduser
  53 is a simple program for adding new users.
  54 Adduser checks
  55 the passwd, group and shell databases.
  56 It creates passwd/group entries,
  57 .Ev HOME
  58 directory, dotfiles and sends the new user a welcome message.
  59 .Sh RESTRICTIONS
  60 .Bl -tag -width Ds -compact
  61 .It Sy username
  62 Login name.
  63 May contain only lowercase characters or digits.
  64 (See also the
  65 .Fl force
  66 option.)
  67 Maximum length
  68 is 16 characters (see
  69 .Xr setlogin 2
  70 BUGS section).
  71 The reasons for this limit are "Historical".
  72 Given that people have traditionally wanted to break this
  73 limit for aesthetic reasons, it's never been of great importance to break
  74 such a basic fundamental parameter in UNIX.
  75 You can change
  76 .Dv UT_NAMESIZE
  77 in
  78 .Pa /usr/include/utmp.h
  79 and recompile the
  80 world; people have done this and it works, but you will have problems
  81 with any precompiled programs, or source that assumes the 8-character
  82 name limit and NIS.
  83 The NIS protocol mandates an 8-character username.
  84 If you need a longer login name for e-mail addresses,
  85 you can define an alias in
  86 .Pa /etc/mail/aliases .
  87 .It Sy fullname
  88 Firstname and surname.
  89 The
  90 .Ql Pa \&:
  91 character is not allowed.
  92 .It Sy shell
  93 Only valid shells from the shell database or sliplogin and pppd
  94 .It Sy uid
  95 Automatically generated or your choice, must be less than 32000.
  96 .It Sy gid/login group
  97 Your choice or automatically generated.
  98 .It Sy password
  99 If not empty, password is encoded with
 100 .Xr crypt 3 .
 101 .El
 102 .Sh UNIQUE GROUPS
 103 Perhaps you're missing what
 104 .Em can
 105 be done with this scheme that falls apart
 106 with most other schemes.  With each user in his/her own group the user can
 107 safely run with a umask of 002 and have files created in their home directory
 108 and not worry about others being able to read them.
 109 .Pp
 110 For a shared area you create a separate uid/gid (like cvs or ncvs on freefall),
 111 you place each person that should be able to access this area into that new
 112 group.
 113 .Pp
 114 This model of uid/gid administration allows far greater flexibility than lumping
 115 users into groups and having to muck with the umask when working in a shared
 116 area.
 117 .Pp
 118 I have been using this model for almost 10 years and found that it works
 119 for most situations, and has never gotten in the way.  (Rod Grimes)
 120 .Sh CONFIGURATION
 121 .Bl -enum
 122 .It
 123 Read internal variables.
 124 .It
 125 Read configuration file (/etc/adduser.conf).
 126 .It
 127 Parse command line options.
 128 .El
 129 .Sh OPTIONS
 130 .Bl -tag -width Ds
 131 .It Fl check_only
 132 Check /etc/passwd, /etc/group, /etc/shells and exit.
 133 .It Fl class Ar login_class
 134 Set default login class.
 135 .It Fl config_create
 136 Create new configuration and message file and exit.
 137 .It Fl dotdir Ar directory
 138 Copy files from
 139 .Ar directory
 140 into the
 141 .Ev HOME
 142 directory of new users,
 143 .Ql Pa dot.foo
 144 will be renamed to
 145 .Ql Pa .foo .
 146 Don't copy files if
 147 .Ar directory
 148 specified is equal to
 149 .Ar no .
 150 For security make all files writable and readable for owner,
 151 don't allow group or world to write files and allow only owner
 152 to read/execute/write
 153 .Pa .rhost ,
 154 .Pa .Xauthority ,
 155 .Pa .kermrc ,
 156 .Pa .netrc ,
 157 .Pa Mail ,
 158 .Pa prv ,
 159 .Pa iscreen ,
 160 .Pa term .
 161 .It Fl force , f
 162 Add a user even if the username contains illegal characters.
 163 Only semicolon or newline characters will be disallowed in
 164 usernames to avoid breaking the password file format.
 165 .It Fl group Ar login_group
 166 Login group.
 167 .Ar USER
 168 means that the username is to be used as login group.
 169 .It Fl help , h , \&?
 170 Print a summary of options and exit.
 171 .It Fl home Ar partition
 172 Default home partition where all users located.
 173 .It Fl message Ar file
 174 Send new users a welcome message from
 175 .Ar file .
 176 Specifying a value of
 177 .Ar no
 178 for
 179 .Ar file
 180 causes no message to be sent to new users.
 181 .It Fl noconfig
 182 Do not read the default configuration file.
 183 .It Fl shell Ar shell
 184 Default shell for new users.
 185 .It Fl silent , s , quiet , q
 186 Few warnings, questions, bug reports.
 187 .It Fl uid Ar uid
 188 Use uid's from
 189 .Ar uid
 190 on up.
 191 .It Fl verbose , v
 192 Many warnings, questions.
 193 Recommended for novice users.
 194 .El
 195 .Sh FORMATS
 196 .Bl -tag -width Ds -compact
 197 .Ql Pa #
 198 is a comment.
 199 .It Sy configuration file
 200 .Nm Adduser
 201 reads and writes this file.
 202 See
 203 .Pa /etc/adduser.conf
 204 for more details.
 205 .It Sy message file
 206 Eval variables in this file.
 207 See
 208 .Pa /etc/adduser.message
 209 for more
 210 details.
 211 .El
 212 .Sh FILES
 213 .Bl -tag -width /etc/master.passwdxx -compact
 214 .It Pa /etc/master.passwd
 215 user database
 216 .It Pa /etc/group
 217 group database
 218 .It Pa /etc/shells
 219 shell database
 220 .It Pa /etc/login.conf
 221 login classes database
 222 .It Pa /etc/adduser.conf
 223 configuration file for adduser
 224 .It Pa /etc/adduser.message
 225 message file for adduser
 226 .It Pa /usr/share/skel
 227 skeletal login directory
 228 .It Pa /var/log/adduser
 229 logfile for adduser
 230 .El
 231 .Sh SEE ALSO
 232 .Xr chpass 1 ,
 233 .Xr finger 1 ,
 234 .Xr passwd 1 ,
 235 .Xr setlogin 2 ,
 236 .Xr yp 4 ,
 237 .Xr aliases 5 ,
 238 .Xr group 5 ,
 239 .Xr login.conf 5 ,
 240 .Xr passwd 5 ,
 241 .Xr shells 5 ,
 242 .Xr pw 8 ,
 243 .Xr pwd_mkdb 8 ,
 244 .Xr rmuser 8 ,
 245 .Xr vipw 8
 246 .\" .Sh BUGS
 247 .Sh HISTORY
 248 The
 249 .Nm
 250 command appeared in
 251 .Fx 2.1 .