Adding and managing users and groups
Beyond the Basics
The command line provides all the necessary tools for creating and maintaining multiple accounts. By understanding these commands, you can more effectively manage your system.
If you have ever done any system administration, chances are you have added an account or a group. However, both tasks offer possibilities beyond the plain command. Not only do numerous options exist to modify the basic command, but a variety of other commands are available for manipulating users and groups and viewing their activities.
Users and groups are means of controlling access to a Linux system. A user account gives normal access to a system, whereas user membership in a group gives access to different hardware, subsystems, and files. Typically, each user account is matched with a group of the same name, so that users can access the files in their home directory. In some distributions, only the ordinary user created during installation has full non-root access, and you might have to add new users to each group to which the first user belongs.
Adding and Deleting
In Debian-based distributions, the easiest way to create a new user is with adduser, a script that leads you through the process. After you enter the command adduser NAME, you are prompted for a name, a password, and optional contact information that in effect turns a list of users into a contact list. Other information, such as the user ID (UID), is created for you, starting with 1000 (Figure 1). Non-Debian distributions also include adduser, but in most cases it is an alias for useradd.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.
-
Plasma 6.5 Promises Better Memory Optimization
With the stable Plasma 6.4 on the horizon, KDE has a few new tricks up its sleeve for Plasma 6.5.
-
KaOS 2025.05 Officially Qt5 Free
If you're a fan of independent Linux distributions, the team behind KaOS is proud to announce the latest iteration that includes kernel 6.14 and KDE's Plasma 6.3.5.
-
Linux Kernel 6.15 Now Available
The latest Linux kernel is now available with several new features/improvements and the usual bug fixes.
-
Microsoft Makes Surprising WSL Announcement
In a move that might surprise some users, Microsoft has made Windows Subsystem for Linux open source.
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.