Intermediate · 8 min · practise every command in the built-in terminal

Managing Users

useradd — Create user

sudo useradd username
sudo useradd -m -s /bin/bash -c "Full Name" username

Flags:

  • -m — Create home directory
  • -s — Set shell
  • -c — Comment/full name
  • -G — Add to groups
  • -u — Specify UID

passwd — Set password

sudo passwd username      # Set password for user
passwd                    # Change your own password

usermod — Modify user

sudo usermod -aG sudo username     # Add to sudo group
sudo usermod -s /bin/zsh username  # Change shell
sudo usermod -l newname oldname    # Rename user
sudo usermod -L username           # Lock account
sudo usermod -U username           # Unlock account

⚠️ Always use -a (append) with -G or you'll remove existing groups!

userdel — Delete user

sudo userdel username           # Delete user (keep home)
sudo userdel -r username        # Delete user AND home directory

groupadd, groupdel

sudo groupadd developers
sudo groupdel developers
sudo gpasswd -a user group    # Add user to group
sudo gpasswd -d user group    # Remove user from group

Practice tasks

  1. View the user entries in /etc/passwd
  2. Create a new user with a home directory
  3. Add the new user to the sudo group
  4. Set a password for the new user

Commands in this lesson

Users & Groups