.\" Copyright (c) 1995-1996 Wolfram Schneider . Berlin. .\" All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" $Id: adduser.8,v 1.25 1998/03/18 16:21:55 hoek Exp $ .\" .Dd January 9, 1995 .Dt ADDUSER 8 .Os FreeBSD 2.1 .Sh NAME .Nm adduser .Nd command for adding new users .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm adduser .Op Fl check_only .br .Op Fl class Ar login_class .br .Op Fl config_create .br .Op Fl dotdir Ar dotdir .br .Op Fl group Ar login_group .br .Op Fl h | help .br .Op Fl home Ar home .br .Op Fl message Ar message_file .br .Op Fl noconfig .br .Op Fl shell Ar shell .br .Op Fl s | silent | q | quiet .br .Op Fl uid Ar uid_start .br .Op Fl v | verbose .Sh DESCRIPTION .Nm Adduser is a simple program for adding new users. Adduser checks the passwd, group and shell databases. It creates passwd/group entries, .Ev HOME directory, dotfiles and sends the new user a welcome message. .Sh RESTRICTIONS .Bl -tag -width Ds -compact .It Sy username Login name. May contain only lowercase characters or digits. Maximum length is 16 characters (see .Xr setlogin 2 BUGS section). The reasons for this limit are "Historical". Given that people have traditionally wanted to break this limit for aesthetic reasons, it's never been of great importance to break such a basic fundamental parameter in UNIX. You can change .Dv UT_NAMESIZE in .Pa /usr/include/utmp.h and recompile the world; people have done this and it works, but you will have problems with any precompiled programs, or source that assumes the 8-character name limit and NIS. The NIS protocol mandates an 8-character username. If you need a longer login name for e-mail addresses, you can define an alias in .Pa /etc/aliases . .It Sy fullname Firstname and surname. The .Ql Pa \: character is not allowed. .It Sy shell Only valid shells from the shell database or sliplogin and pppd .It Sy uid Automatically generated or your choice, must be less than 32000. .It Sy gid/login group Your choice or automatically generated. .It Sy password If not empty, password is encoded with .Xr crypt 3 . .El .Sh UNIQUE GROUPS Perhaps you're missing what .Em can be done with this scheme that falls apart with most other schemes. With each user in his/her own group the user can safely run with a umask of 002 and have files created in their home directory and not worry about others being able to read them. .Pp For a shared area you create a separate uid/gid (like cvs or ncvs on freefall), you place each person that should be able to access this area into that new group. .Pp This model of uid/gid administration allows far greater flexibility than lumping users into groups and having to muck with the umask when working in a shared area. .Pp I have been using this model for almost 10 years and found that it works for most situations, and has never gotten in the way. (Rod Grimes) .Sh CONFIGURATION .Bl -enum .It Read internal variables. .It Read configuration file (/etc/adduser.conf). .It Parse command line options. .El .Sh OPTIONS .Bl -tag -width Ds .It Sy -check_only Check /etc/passwd, /etc/group, /etc/shells and exit. .It Sy -class Ar login_class Set default login class. .It Sy -config_create Create new configuration and message file and exit. .It Sy -dotdir Ar directory Copy files from .Ar directory into the .Ev HOME directory of new users, .Ql Pa dot.foo will be renamed to .Ql Pa .foo . Don't copy files if .Ar directory specified is equal to .Ar no . For security make all files writable and readable for owner, don't allow group or world to write files and allow only owner to read/execute/write .Pa .rhost , .Pa .Xauthority , .Pa .kermrc , .Pa .netrc , .Pa Mail , .Pa prv , .Pa iscreen , .Pa term . .It Sy -group Ar login_group Login group. .Ar USER means that the username is to be used as login group. .It Sy -help,-h,-? Print a summary of options and exit. .It Sy -home Ar partition Default home partition where all users located. .It Sy -message Ar file Send new users a welcome message from .Ar file . Specifying a value of .Ar no for .Ar file causes no message to be sent to new users. .It Sy -noconfig Do not read the default configuration file. .It Sy -shell Ar shell Default shell for new users. .It Sy -silent,-s,-quiet,-q Few warnings, questions, bug reports. .It Sy -uid Ar uid Use uid's from .Ar uid on up. .It Sy -verbose,-v Many warnings, questions. Recommended for novice users. .Sh FORMATS .Bl -tag -width Ds -compact .Ql Pa # is a comment. .It Sy configuration file .Nm Adduser reads and writes this file. See .Pa /etc/adduser.conf for more details. .It Sy message file Eval variables in this file. See .Pa /etc/adduser.message for more details. .El .Sh FILES .Bl -tag -width /etc/master.passwdxx -compact .It Pa /etc/master.passwd user database .It Pa /etc/group group database .It Pa /etc/shells shell database .It Pa /etc/login.conf login classes database .It Pa /etc/adduser.conf configuration file for adduser .It Pa /etc/adduser.message message file for adduser .It Pa /usr/share/skel skeletal login directory .It Pa /var/log/adduser logfile for adduser .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr chpass 1 , .Xr finger 1 , .Xr passwd 1 , .Xr setlogin 2 , .Xr yp 4 , .Xr aliases 5 , .Xr group 5 , .Xr login.conf 5 , .Xr passwd 5 , .Xr shells 5 , .Xr addgroup 8 , .Xr pw 8 , .Xr pwd_mkdb 8 , .Xr rmgroup 8 , .Xr rmuser 8 , .Xr vipw 8 .\" .Sh BUGS .Sh HISTORY The .Nm command appeared in .Fx 2.1 .