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useradd - Adds a new user login account
/usr/sbin/useradd [-u uid [-o]] [-g group] [-G group[,group...]] [-c comment] [-d dir] [-k skel_dir] [-m] [-s shell] [-f inactive] [-e expire] [-t type] [-x extended_option] login
/usr/sbin/useradd -D [-g group] [-f inactive] [-e expire] [-b base_dir] [-s shell] [-k skel_dir] [-x extended_option]
When used without arguments, this flag displays the system default attributes for user and group information. If invoked with any combination of the flags, -b, -e, -f, -g, -k, -s, or -x, it sets the default values for those flags. Subsequent invocations of useradd without the -D flag uses these new defaults. For example, the following command sets the default expiry date for any new login that is created subsequently:
useradd -D -e 08/19/97 This flag is a comma separated list of groups that defines the supplementary group membership for a new user. Groups can be specified by the group's name or by its group identification number (GID). An error is displayed for each group that does not exist. Duplicate groups are ignored. Sets the default directory for user login accounts. If -d dir is not specified, the default base_dir is concatenated with the user's login to define the home directory. If the -m flag is not used, base_dir must exist.
useradd -D -f inactive When used with the -D flag, the -g flag defines the system default for a new group. The group argument can be specified as an existing group's identification number (GID) or character-string name.
When used without the -D flag, it specifies the primary group for the new user login account. When used without the -D flag, the -k flag specifies the directory that contains skeleton information (such as startup files) that can be copied into a new user's home directory. This directory must exist. The system provides a "skel" directory, /usr/skel that can be used for this purpose.
When used with the -D flag, it defines the system default. Creates the new user's home directory if it doesn't already exist. If the directory already exists, it must have read, write and execute permissions by group, where group is the user's primary group. Allows a user identification (UID) number to be duplicated (non-unique). This flag can be used only with the -u flag. When used without the -D flag, it specifies the full pathname of the program used as the user's login shell. If both the -D and -s flags are not specified, the user's login shell defaults to /bin/sh. The shell argument must be a valid executable file.
When used with the -D flag, it defines the system default. Adds a local plus (+) or local minus (-) NIS user from the user database. The value of the type parameter can be + or -. Specifies the user identification number (UID) of the new user. The uid must be specified as a non-negative decimal integer.
The following extended_option attributes are available only on systems running in enhanced security mode. If you use more than one extended_option attribute on the command line, you must precede each attribute with the -x flag or enclose the desired attributes in quotes. Specifies the time, in days, between the last password change and the password expiration. (A new password must be chosen.) The value of n must be an integer. If the value of the passwd_expiration_time attribute is set to 0, there is no password expiration time.
Specifies the time, in days, between the last password change and the expiration of the account. The value of n must be an integer. If the passwd_lifetime attribute is set to 0, the password lifetime is infinite. Specifies the time, in days, which must pass before a user can change the user account password. The value of n must be an integer. The passwd_min_change_time=0 argument means there is no minimum time to change the user account password. Specifies the new login name of the user. It can be a string of any printable characters, except a colon (:) or newline (\n) character.
The useradd command adds and administers user accounts on the system.
Invoking useradd without the -D flag adds a new user entry to the user database. It also creates supplementary group memberships for the user (with the -G flag) and creates the home directory for the user, if requested with the -m flag.
Invoking useradd -D with no additional flags displays the system default values that are used when creating a new login account.
The -x flag lets the system administrator specify whether the new user login account is local or distributed over a network. If this flag is not specified on the command line, the system adds the new user login account to the appropriate database as specified by the system defaults.
The default behavior on the system for the useradd command is distributed=0 and local=1. With these values, the system adds the user login account to the local database by default. Setting the distributed= and local= attributes to the same value (for example, distributed=0 and local=0) produces an error.
If the user identification number (UID) is not specified, it defaults to the next available (unique) number. This number is calculated as the next available UID greater than the nextUID and minUID.
The user database file entries created with useradd cannot exceed 512 characters per line. Specifying long arguments to several options may exceed this limit.
You must have superuser privilege to execute this command.
The following example adds the user, newuser, to the user database: useradd newuser
The following example adds the user, newuser, to the user database with user id of 451: % useradd -u 451 newuser
The following example adds the user, newuser, using the next available user id with csh as the login shell, and creates the home directory: % useradd -m -s /bin/csh newuser
The following example adds the local user, xyz, that overrides the default home directory in the NIS master database: % useradd -t + -d /users/xyz xyz
The following example changes the default base directory to /user/users1 for all new users: % useradd -D -b /user/users1
The following example adds the new user, xyz, to the NIS master database: % useradd -x distributed=1 xyz
The useradd command exits with one of the following values: Success Invalid command syntax or insufficient privilege. A usage message for the useradd command or an error message is displayed. An invalid argument was provided to an option. The UID, which is specified with the -u flag, is already in use (not unique). The GID, which is specified with the -g flag, does not exist. The specified login is not unique. Cannot update the group database. The login was added to the user database, but not to the group database. Unable to create the home directory (with the -m flag) or unable to complete the copy of skel_dir to the home directory.
The useradd command operates on the appropriate files for the specific level of system security.
Commands: groupadd(8), groupdel(8), groupmod(8), passwd(1), userdel(8), usermod(8)
Documents: System Administration, Security delim off