adduser -- command for adding new users
adduser [-CENhq] [-G groups] [-L login_class] [-d partition] [-f file]
[-g login_group] [-k dotdir] [-m message_file] [-s shell]
[-u uid_start] [-w type]
The adduser utility is a shell script, implemented around the pw(8) command,
for adding new users. It creates passwd/group entries, a home
directory, copies dotfiles and sends the new user a welcome message. It
supports two modes of operation. It may be used interactively at the
command line to add one user at a time, or it may be directed to get the
list of new users from a file and operate in batch mode without requiring
any user interaction.
username
Login name. The user name is restricted to whatever pw(8) will
accept. Generally this means it may contain only lowercase characters
or digits. Maximum length is 16 characters. The reasons
for this limit are historical. Given that people have traditionally
wanted to break this limit for aesthetic reasons, it has
never been of great importance to break such a basic fundamental
parameter in UNIX. You can change UT_NAMESIZE in <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
/etc/mail/aliases.
full name
This is typically known as the gecos field and usually contains
the user's full name. Additionally, it may contain a comma separated
list of values such as office number and work and home
phones. If the name contains an ampersand it will be replaced by
the capitalized login name when displayed by other programs. The
`:' character is not allowed.
shell Only valid shells from the shell database (/etc/shells) are
allowed. In addition, only the base name of the shell is necessary,
not the full path.
UID Automatically generated or your choice. It must be less than
32000.
GID/login group
Automatically generated or your choice. It must be less than
32000.
password
You may choose an empty password, disable the password, use a
randomly generated password or specify your own plaintext password,
which will be encrypted before being stored in the user
database.
Perhaps you are missing what can be done with this scheme that falls
apart with most other schemes. With each user in their own group, they
can safely run with a umask of 002 instead of the usual 022 and create
files in their home directory without worrying about others being able to
change them.
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.
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.
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)
The adduser utility reads its configuration information from
/etc/adduser.conf. If this file does not exist, it will use predefined
defaults. While this file may be edited by hand, the safer option is to
use the -C command line argument. With this argument, adduser will start
interactive input, save the answers to its prompts in /etc/adduser.conf,
and promptly exit without modifying the user database. Options specified
on the command line will take precedence over any values saved in this
file.
-C Create new configuration file and exit. This option is mutually
exclusive with the -f option.
-d partition
Home partition. Default partition, under which all user directories
will be located.
-E Disable the account. This option will lock the account by
prepending the string ``*LOCKED*'' to the password field. The
account may be unlocked by the super-user with the pw(8) command:
pw unlock [name | uid]
-f file
Get the list of accounts to create from file. If file is ``-'',
then get the list from standard input. If this option is specified,
adduser will operate in batch mode and will not seek any
user input. If an error is encountered while processing an
account, it will write a message to standard error and move to
the next account. The format of the input file is described
below.
-g login_group
Normaly, if no login group is specified, it is assumed to be the
same as the username. This option makes login_group the default.
-G groups
Additional groups. This option allows the user to specify additional
groups to add users to. The user is a member of these
groups in addition to their login group.
-h Print a summary of options and exit.
-k directory
Copy files from directory into the home directory of new users;
dot.foo will be renamed to .foo.
-L login_class
Set default login class.
-m file
Send new users a welcome message from file. Specifying a value
of no for file causes no message to be sent to new users. Please
note that the message file can reference the internal variables
of the adduser script.
-N Do not read the default configuration file.
-q Minimal user feedback. In particular, the random password will
not be echoed to standard output.
-s shell
Default shell for new users. The shell argument must be the base
name of the shell, not the full path. It must exist in
/etc/shells or be the special shell nologin to be considered a
valid shell.
-u uid Use UIDs from uid on up.
-w type
Password type. The adduser utility allows the user to specify
what type of password to create. The type argument may have one
of the following values:
no Disable the password. Instead of an encrypted string,
the password field will contain a single `*' character.
The user may not log in until the super-user manually
enables the password.
none Use an empty string as the password.
yes Use a user-supplied string as the password. In interactive
mode, the user will be prompted for the password.
In batch mode, the last (10th) field in the line is
assumed to be the password.
random Generate a random string and use it as a password. The
password will be echoed to standard output. In addition,
it will be available for inclusion in the message file in
the randompass variable.
When the -f option is used, the account information must be stored in a
specific format. All empty lines or lines beginning with a `#' will be
ignored. All other lines must contain ten colon (`:') separated fields
as described below. Command line options do not take precedence over
values in the fields. Only the password field may contain a `:' character
as part of the string.
name:uid:gid:class:change:expire:gecos:home_dir:shell:password
name Login name. This field may not be empty.
uid Numeric login user ID. If this field is left empty, it will be
automatically generated.
gid Numeric primary group ID. If this field is left empty, a group
with the same name as the user name will be created and its GID
will be used instead.
class Login class. This field may be left empty.
change Password ageing. This field denotes the password change date
for the account. The format of this field is the same as the
format of the -p argument to pw(8). It may be dd-mmm-yy[yy],
where dd is for the day, mmm is for the month in numeric or
alphabetical format: ``10'' or ``Oct'', and yy[yy] is the four
or two digit year. To denote a time relative to the current
date the format is: +n[mhdwoy], where n denotes a number, followed
by the minutes, hours, days, weeks, months or years after
which the password must be changed. This field may be left
empty to turn it off.
expire Account expiration. This field denotes the expiry date of the
account. The account may not be used after the specified date.
The format of this field is the same as that for password ageing.
This field may be left empty to turn it off.
gecos Full name and other extra information about the user.
home_dir Home directory. If this field is left empty, it will be automatically
created by appending the username to the home partition.
shell Login shell. This field should contain the full path to a
valid login shell.
password User password. This field should contain a plaintext string,
which will be encrypted before being placed in the user database.
If the password type is yes and this field is empty, it
is assumed the account will have an empty password. If the
password type is random and this field is not empty, its contents
will be used as a password. This field will be ignored
if the -p option is used with a no or none argument. Be careful
not to terminate this field with a closing `:' because it
will be treated as part of the password.
/etc/master.passwd user database
/etc/group group database
/etc/shells shell database
/etc/login.conf login classes database
/etc/adduser.conf configuration file for adduser
/etc/adduser.message message file for adduser
/usr/share/skel skeletal login directory
/var/log/adduser logfile for adduser
chpass(1), passwd(1), aliases(5), group(5), login.conf(5), passwd(5),
shells(5), pw(8), pwd_mkdb(8), rmuser(8), vipw(8), yp(8)
The adduser command appeared in FreeBSD 2.1.
This manual page and the original script, in Perl, was written by Wolfram
Schneider <[email protected]>. The replacement script, written as a
Bourne shell script with some enhancements, and the man page modification
that came with it were done by Mike Makonnen <[email protected]>.
In order for adduser to correctly expand variables such as $username and
$randompass in the message sent to new users, it must let the shell evaluate
each line of the message file. This means that shell commands can
also be embedded in the message file. The adduser utility attempts to
mitigate the possibility of an attacker using this feature by refusing to
evaluate the file if it is not owned and writeable only by the root user.
In addition, shell special characters and operators will have to be
escaped when used in the message file.
Also, password ageing and account expiry times are currently setable only
in batch mode. The user should be able to set them in interactive mode
as well.
FreeBSD 5.2.1 August 14, 2002 FreeBSD 5.2.1 [ Back ] |
