Linux sysadmin Tutorial: adduser

User management commands in linux

How to add user in linux?

In Linux, a ‘useradd‘ command is a low-level utility that is used for adding/creating user accounts in Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. 

Let the new user to be add is Testuser ,then the command will be :

useradd Testuser

Creating password for a user :

passwd Testuser

Enter the new password for the user.

We can see this user details in /etc/passwd file.

cat /etc/passwd

When we run ‘useradd‘ command in Linux terminal, it performs following major things:

1. It edits /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/group and /etc/gshadow files for the newly created User account.
2. Creates and populate a home directory for the new user.
3. Sets permissions and ownership to home directory.

The default home directory for a user will be  ‘ /home/Testuser/ ‘ . but we can create a user with different home directory.

useradd –d [directory] Testuser

Author : 

Ajith Michael
System Engineer
Bayasys Infotech (P) Ltd., Kochi.

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