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25 .\" $Id: pw.8,v 1.15 1998/09/18 04:45:43 jkoshy Exp $
32 .Nd create, remove, modify & display system users and groups
153 .Op Fl m Ar newmembers
174 is a command-line based editor for the system
178 files, allowing the superuser an easy to use and standardized way of adding,
179 modifying and removing users and groups.
182 only operates on the local user and group files. NIS users and groups must be
183 maintained on the NIS server.
189 and the secure and insecure
190 password database files, and must be run as root.
192 The first one or two keywords provided to
194 on the command line provide the context for the remainder of the arguments.
206 in any order. (For example,
211 all mean the same thing.)
212 This flexibility is useful for interactive scripts calling
214 for user and group database manipulation.
215 Following these keywords, you may optionally specify the user or group name or numeric
216 id as an alternative to using the
222 The following flags are common to most or all modes of operation;
224 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
226 This flag sets an alternate location for the password, group and configuration files,
227 and may be used to maintain a user/group database in an alternate location.
228 If this switch is specified, the system
230 will not be sourced for default configuration data, but the file pw.conf in the
231 specified directory will be used instead (or none, if it does not exist).
234 flag may be used to override this behaviour.
235 As an exception to the general rule where options must follow the operation
238 flag may be used on the command line before the operation keyword.
244 to obtain policy information on how new user accounts and groups are to be created.
247 option specifies a different configuration file.
248 While most of the contents of the configuration file may be overridden via
249 command-line options, it may be more convenient to keep standard information in a
252 Use of this option causes
254 to suppress error messages, which may be useful in interactive environments where it
255 is preferable to interpret status codes returned by
257 rather than messing up a carefully formatted display.
259 This option is available in
263 operations, and tells
265 to output the result of the operation without updating the user or group
269 option to switch between standard passwd and readable formats.
271 Using this option with any of the update modes causes
275 after changing to the directory
277 This is intended to allow automatic updating of NIS database files.
278 If separate passwd and group files are being used by NIS, then use the
280 option to specify the location of the NIS passwd database so that
282 will concurrently update it with the system password
287 The following options apply to the
293 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
295 Specify the user/account name.
297 Specify the user/account numeric id.
299 Usually, you only need to provide one or the other of these options, as the account
300 name will imply the uid, or vice versa.
301 However, there are times when you need to provide both.
302 For example, when changing the uid of an existing user with
304 or overriding the default uid when creating a new account.
307 to automatically allocate the uid to a new user with
314 You may also provide either the account or userid immediately after the
320 keywords on the command line without using the
327 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
329 This field sets the contents of the passwd GECOS field, which normally contains up
330 to four comma-separated fields containing the user's full name, office or location,
331 and work and home phone numbers.
332 These sub-fields are used by convention only, however, and are optional.
333 If this field is to contain spaces, you need to quote the comment itself with double
336 Avoid using commas in this field as these are used as sub-field separators, and the
339 character also cannot be used as this is the field separator for the passwd
342 This option sets the account's home directory.
343 Normally, you will only use this if the home directory is to be different from the
344 default determined from
348 with the account name as a subdirectory.
350 Set the account's expiration date.
351 Format of the date is either a UNIX time in decimal, or a date in
353 format, where dd is the day, mmm is the month, either in numeric or alphabetic format
354 ('Jan', 'Feb', etc) and year is either a two or four digit year.
355 This option also accepts a relative date in the form
359 is a decimal, octal (leading 0) or hexadecimal (leading 0x) digit followed by the
360 number of Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months or Years from the current date at
361 which the expiration date is to be set.
363 Set the account's password expiration date.
364 This field is similar to the account expiration date option, except that it
365 applies to forced password changes.
366 This is set in the same manner as the
370 Set the account's primary group to the given group.
372 may be defined by either its name or group number.
373 .It Fl G Ar grouplist
374 Sets additional group memberships for an account.
376 is a comma-separated list of group names or group numbers.
377 The user's name is added to the group lists in
380 removed from any groups not specified in
382 Note: a user should not be added to their primary group with
384 Also, group membership changes do not take effect for current user login
385 sessions, requiring the user to reconnect to be affected by the changes.
387 This option sets the login class for the user being created.
390 for more information on user login classes.
392 This option instructs
394 to attempt to create the user's home directory.
395 While primarily useful when adding a new account with
397 this may also be of use when moving an existing user's home directory elsewhere on
399 The new home directory is populated with the contents of the
401 directory, which typically contains a set of shell configuration files that the
402 user may personalize to taste.
405 is used on an account with
407 existing configuration files in the user's home directory are
409 overwritten from the skeleton files.
411 When a user's home directory is created, it will by default be a subdirectory of the
413 directory as specified by the
415 option (see below), bearing the name of the new account.
416 This can be overridden by the
418 option on the command line, if desired.
422 directory, from which basic startup and configuration files are copied when
423 the user's home directory is created.
424 This option only has meaning when used with the
430 Set or changes the user's login shell to
432 If the path to the shell program is omitted,
438 and fills it in as appropriate.
439 Note that unless you have a specific reason to do so, you should avoid
440 specifying the path - this will allow
442 to validate that the program exists and is executable.
443 Specifying a full path (or supplying a blank "" shell) avoids this check
444 and allows for such entries as
446 that should be set for accounts not intended for interactive login.
450 field in the user's passwd record.
451 This field is not currently used, but will be used in the future to specify a
457 This option provides a special interface by which interactive scripts can
458 set an account password using
460 Because the command line and environment are fundamentally insecure mechanisms
461 by which programs can accept information,
463 will only allow setting of account and group passwords via a file descriptor
464 (usually a pipe between an interactive script and the program).
470 all possess mechanisms by which this can be done.
473 will prompt for the user's password if
477 as the file descriptor on which to read the password.
478 Note that this password will be read only once and is intended
479 for use by a script rather than for interactive use.
480 If you wish to have new password confirmation along the lines of
482 this must be implemented as part of an interactive script that calls
487 is given as the argument
489 then the password will be set to
491 rendering the account inaccessible via password-based login.
494 It is possible to use
496 to create a new account that duplicates an existing user id.
497 While this is normally considered an error and will be rejected, the
499 option overrides the check for duplicates and allows the duplication of
501 This may be useful if you allow the same user to login under
502 different contexts (different group allocations, different home
503 directory, different shell) while providing basically the same
504 permissions for access to the user's files in each account.
508 command also has the ability to set new user and group defaults by using the
511 Instead of adding a new user,
513 writes a new set of defaults to its configuration file,
517 option, you must not use either
521 or an error will result.
524 changes the meaning of several command line switches in the
528 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
530 Set default values in
532 configuration file, or a different named configuration file if the
536 Set the root directory in which user home directories are created.
537 The default value for this is
539 but it may be set elsewhere as desired.
541 Set the default account expiration period in days.
544 the argument must be numeric, which specifies the number of days after creation when
545 the account is to expire.
546 A value of 0 suppresses automatic calculation of the expiry date.
548 Set the default password expiration period in days.
550 Set the default group for new users.
551 If a blank group is specified using
553 then new users will be allocated their own private primary group
554 with the same name as their login name.
555 If a group is supplied, either its name or uid may be given as an argument.
556 .It Fl G Ar grouplist
557 Set the default groups in which new users are granted membership.
558 This is a separate set of groups from the primary group, and you should avoid
559 nominating the same group as both primary and extra groups.
560 In other words, these extra groups determine membership in groups
564 is a comma-separated list of group names or ids, and are always
567 by their symbolic names.
569 This option sets the default login class for new users.
573 directory, from which prototype shell and other initialization files are copied when
575 creates a user's home directory.
576 .It Fl u Ar min,max , Fl i Ar min,max
577 These options set the minimum and maximum user and group ids allocated for new accounts
578 and groups created by
580 The default values for each is 1000 minimum and 32000 maximum.
584 are both numbers, where max must be greater than min, and both must be between 0
586 In general, user and group ids less than 100 are reserved for use by the system,
587 and numbers greater than 32000 may also be reserved for special purposes (used by
588 some system daemons).
592 option sets the default method used to set passwords for newly created user accounts.
596 .Bl -tag -width random -offset indent -compact
598 disable login on newly created accounts
600 force the password to be the account name
602 force a blank password
604 generate a random password
611 methods are the most secure; in the former case,
613 generates a password and prints it to stdout, which is suitable where you issue
614 users with passwords to access their accounts rather than having the user nominate
615 their own (possibly poorly chosen) password.
618 method requires that the superuser use
620 to render the account accessible with a password.
622 This sets the pathname of the database used by NIS if you are not sharing
624 .Pa /etc/master.passwd
626 You should only set this option for NIS servers.
631 command has only three valid options. The
635 options have already been covered above.
636 The additional option is:
637 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
641 to remove the user's home directory and all of its contents.
643 errs on the side of caution when removing files from the system.
644 Firstly, it will not do so if the uid of the account being removed is also used by
645 another account on the system, and the 'home' directory in the password file is
646 a valid path that commences with the character
648 Secondly, it will only remove files and directories that are actually owned by
649 the user, or symbolic links owned by anyone under the user's home directory.
650 Finally, after deleting all contents owned by the user only empty directories
652 If any additional cleanup work is required, this is left to the administrator.
655 Mail spool files and crontabs are always removed when an account is deleted as these
656 are unconditionally attached to the user name.
657 Jobs queued for processing by
659 are also removed if the user's uid is unique and not also used by another account on the
664 command allows viewing of an account in one of two formats.
665 By default, the format is identical to the format used in
666 .Pa /etc/master.passwd
667 with the password field replaced with a
673 outputs the account details in a more human readable form.
676 option lists all users currently on file.
680 returns the next available user and group ids separated by a colon.
681 This is normally of interest only to interactive scripts or front-ends
690 options (explained at the start of the previous section) are available
691 with the group manipulation commands.
692 Other common options to all group-related commands are:
693 .Bl -tag -width "-m newmembers"
695 Specify the group name.
697 Specify the group numeric id.
699 As with the account name and id fields, you will usually only need
700 to supply one of these, as the group name implies the uid and vice
702 You will only need to use both when setting a specific group id
703 against a new group or when changing the uid of an existing group.
704 .It Fl M Ar memberlist
705 This option provides an alternative way to add existing users to a
706 new group (in groupadd) or replace an existing membership list (in
709 is a comma separated list of valid and existing user names or uids.
710 .It Fl m Ar newmembers
713 this option allows the
715 of existing users to a group without replacing the existing list of
717 Login names or user ids may be used, and duplicate users are
724 option that allows allocation of an existing group id to a new group.
725 The default action is to reject an attempt to add a group, and this option overrides
726 the check for duplicate group ids.
727 There is rarely any need to duplicate a group id.
731 command adds one additional option:
733 .Bl -tag -width "-m newmembers"
735 This option allows changing of an existing group name to
737 The new name must not already exist, and any attempt to duplicate an existing group
738 name will be rejected.
749 to specify the group id.
753 returns the next available group id on standard output.
756 returns EXIT_SUCCESS on successful operation, otherwise
759 following exit codes defined by
766 Command line syntax errors (invalid keyword, unknown option).
771 Attempting to run one of the update modes as non-root.
776 Memory allocation error.
778 Read error from password file descriptor.
783 Bad or invalid data provided or missing on the command line or
784 via the password file descriptor.
786 Attempted to remove, rename root account or change its uid.
791 Skeleton directory is invalid or does not exist.
793 Base home directory is invalid or does not exist.
795 Invalid or non-existent shell specified.
800 User, user id, group or group id specified does not exist.
802 User or group recorded, added, or modified unexpectedly disappeared.
807 No more group or user ids available within specified range.
812 Unable to rewrite configuration file.
814 Error updating group or user database files.
816 Update error for passwd or group database files.
821 No base home directory configured.
826 For a summary of options available with each command, you can use
827 .Dl pw [command] help
830 lists all available options for the useradd operation.
833 allows 8-bit characters in the passwd GECOS field (user's full name,
834 office, work and home phone number subfields), but disallows them in
835 user login and group names.
836 Use 8-bit characters with caution, as connection to the Internet will
837 require that your mail transport program supports 8BITMIME, and will
838 convert headers containing 8-bit characters to 7-bit quoted-printable
842 Use of 8-bit characters in the GECOS field should be used in
843 conjunction with the user's default locale and character set
844 and should not be implemented without their use.
845 Using 8-bit characters may also affect other
846 programs that transmit the contents of the GECOS field over the
849 and a small number of TCP/IP clients, such as IRC, where full names
850 specified in the passwd file may be used by default.
852 .Bl -tag -width /etc/master.passwd.new -compact
853 .It Pa /etc/master.passwd
856 A Version 7 format password file
857 .It Pa /etc/login.conf
858 The user capabilities database
861 .It Pa /etc/master.passwd.new
862 Temporary copy of the master password file
863 .It Pa /etc/passwd.new
864 Temporary copy of the Version 7 password file
865 .It Pa /etc/group.new
866 Temporary copy of the group file
868 Pw default options file
881 was written to mimic many of the options used in the SYSV
883 support suite, but is modified for passwd and group fields specific to
886 operating system, and combines all of the major elements
887 into a single command.
git.ckatri.com / pw-darwin.git / blob