This page is all about adding users to your system using the command line. All the all steps in account creation will be explained. On this post I will go over adding the user to the system with the
useradd and
adduser commands. Then I will use the
passwd command to set the users password on the system. I also mention the
usermod command that modifies existing system accounts.
This page is a work in progress if you have an input post below and I may add the content to this blog.
The
useradd and
adduser commands add new user to the UNIX based system.
Affected files:
/etc/passwd
/etc/shadow
/etc/usr_attr
/etc/groups
Some System Administrators add accounts to there systems by editing the above files by hand or with a script. It can be done this way without any problems, but using the useradd and adduser commands are better because they copy the default files to the new users home directory and set the proper permissions
useradd command syntax
useradd [options] {username}
Example:
root@earth> useradd -u 25 -g staff -G ftp,users -m -d /export/home/newuser -c "newuser" -s /bin/bash newuser
Explained
| -u | Sets users ID to 25 |
| -g | Sets primary group membership to staff |
| -G | Sets secondary groups memberships to ftp,users |
| -m | Makes the uses home directory |
| -d | Sets path to home directory |
| -s | Puts in a comment into the /etc/passwd file. |
| -s | Sets users default shell |
| newuser | Put the name of the account at the end |
| -f | Sets the number days the account can be inactive before it is locked (Solaris). For Linux systems it sets the number of days after the users password expires before the account is locked. |
| -e | Sets account expiration date |
In many Linux distros you need only to do is this.
useradd newuser
The OS will fill in the rest for you based on the system default.
adduser [-u uid [-o]] [-g group] [-G group,...]
[-d home] [-s shell] [-c comment] [-m [-k template]]
[-f inactive] [-e expire mm/dd/yy] [-p passwd] [-n] [-r] name
adduser -D [-g group] [-b base] [-s shell] [-f inactive] [-e expire mm/dd/yy]
If you make a mistake then you can use
usermod to modify an existing account. The usermod command works just like useradd,
passwd command changes the password of a user account.
passwd username
Remove password hash in /etc/shadow for a user.
passwd -d username
passwd newuser
- Note: if you don't put a user name at the end of the passwd command then it will change the root password.
I looked all over the internet for a how-to for installing Firefox and could not find one. Even the Firefox web page and the download sites didn't have one. Basically the "powers that be" assumed everyone just knew how to do this. Well it is quite easy. Listed below, are the steps for installing Firefox on a Solaris system. This should as work for Linux systems as well, but it is best to use the Linux package manager.