xref: /openbsd-src/usr.sbin/user/useradd.8 (revision 7a3d14ecb20e7bd4167711f8dc52b019326d4275)

.\" $OpenBSD: useradd.8,v 1.35 2016/11/29 03:59:31 jsg Exp $
.\" $NetBSD: useradd.8,v 1.26 2003/02/25 10:36:21 wiz Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 1999 Alistair G. Crooks.  All rights reserved.
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.Dd $Mdocdate: November 29 2016 $
.Dt USERADD 8
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm useradd
.Nd add a user to the system
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm useradd
.Fl D
.Op Fl b Ar base-directory
.Op Fl e Ar expiry-time
.Op Fl f Ar inactive-time
.Op Fl g Ar gid | name | Cm =uid
.Op Fl k Ar skel-directory
.Op Fl L Ar login-class
.Op Fl r Ar low Ns .. Ns Ar high
.Op Fl s Ar shell
.Nm useradd
.Op Fl mov
.Op Fl b Ar base-directory
.Op Fl c Ar comment
.Op Fl d Ar home-directory
.Op Fl e Ar expiry-time
.Op Fl f Ar inactive-time
.Op Fl G Ar secondary-group Ns Op , Ns Ar group , Ns ...
.Op Fl g Ar gid | name | Cm =uid
.Op Fl k Ar skel-directory
.Op Fl L Ar login-class
.Op Fl p Ar password
.Op Fl r Ar low Ns .. Ns Ar high
.Op Fl s Ar shell
.Op Fl u Ar uid
.Ar user
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm useradd
utility adds a user to the system, creating and
populating a home directory if necessary.
Any skeleton files will be provided
for the new user if they exist in the
.Ar skel-directory
directory (see the
.Fl k
option).
Default values for
the base directory,
the time of password expiry,
the time of account expiry,
primary group,
the skeleton directory,
the range from which the UID will be allocated,
and default login shell
can be provided in the
.Pa /etc/usermgmt.conf
file, which, if running as root, is created using the built-in defaults if
it does not exist.
.Pp
The first form of the command shown above (using the
.Fl D
option)
sets and displays the defaults for the
.Nm
utility.
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl b Ar base-directory
Sets the base directory.
This is the directory to which the user directory is added,
which will be created if the
.Fl m
option is specified and no
.Fl d
option is specified.
.It Fl D
Without any further options,
.Fl D
will show the current defaults which
will be used by the
.Nm
utility.
Together with one of the options shown for the first version
of the command,
.Fl D
will set the default to be the new value.
See
.Xr usermgmt.conf 5
for more information.
.It Fl e Ar expiry-time
Sets the default time at which new accounts will expire.
It should be entered in the form
.Dq month day year ,
where month is the month name (the first three characters are
sufficient), day is the day of the month, and year is the year.
Time in seconds since the Epoch (UTC) is also valid.
A value of 0 can be used to disable this feature.
.It Fl f Ar inactive-time
Sets the time at which passwords of new accounts will expire.
Also see the
.Fl e
option above.
.It Fl g Ar gid | name | Cm =uid
Sets the default group for new users.
.It Fl k Ar skel-directory
Sets the skeleton directory in which to find files with
which to populate new users' home directories.
.It Fl L Ar login-class
Sets the default login class for new users.
See
.Xr login.conf 5
for more information on user login classes.
.It Xo
.Fl r Ar low Ns .. Ns Ar high
.Xc
Sets the low and high bounds of UID ranges for new users.
A new user can only be created if there are UIDs which can be assigned
from one of the free ranges.
.It Fl s Ar shell
Sets the default login shell for new users.
.El
.Pp
In the second form of the command,
after setting any defaults, and then reading values from
.Pa /etc/usermgmt.conf ,
the following command line options are processed:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl b Ar base-directory
Sets the base directory name, in which the user's new home
directory will be created, should the
.Fl m
option be specified.
.It Fl c Ar comment
Sets the comment field (also, for historical reasons known as the
GECOS field) which will be added for the user, and typically will include
the user's full name and, perhaps, contact information for the user.
.It Fl d Ar home-directory
Sets the home directory which will be created and populated for the user,
should the
.Fl m
option be specified.
.It Fl e Ar expiry-time
Sets the time at which the user account will expire.
It should be entered in the form
.Dq month day year ,
where month is the month name (the first three characters are
sufficient), day is the day of the month, and year is the year.
Time in seconds since the Epoch (UTC) is also valid.
A value of 0 can be used to disable this feature.
See
.Xr passwd 5
for more details.
.It Fl f Ar inactive-time
Sets the time at which the current password will expire.
Also see the
.Fl e
option above.
.It Fl G Ar secondary-group Ns Op , Ns Ar group , Ns ...
Sets the secondary groups to which the user will be added in the
.Pa /etc/group
file.
.It Fl g Ar gid | name | Cm =uid
Gives the group name or identifier to be used for the new user's primary group.
If this is the special string
.Cm =uid ,
then a UID and GID will be picked which are both unique
and the same, and a line added to
.Pa /etc/group
to describe the new group.
.It Fl k Ar skel-directory
Gives the skeleton directory in which to find files
with which to populate the new user's home directory.
.It Fl L Ar login-class
This option sets the login class for the user being created.
See
.Xr login.conf 5
for more information on user login classes.
.It Fl m
Create a new home directory for the new user.
.It Fl o
Allow the new user to have a UID which is already in use for another user.
.It Fl p Ar password
Specifies a password encrypted with
.Xr encrypt 1
for the new user.
This password can then be changed by using the
.Xr chpass 1
utility.
If this option is not specified, and no default exists in
.Pa /etc/usermgmt.conf ,
the account will be disabled by default.
.It Fl s Ar shell
Specifies the login shell for the new user.
.It Fl u Ar uid
Specifies a UID for the new user.
Boundaries for this value can be preset for all users
by using the
.Ar range
field in the
.Pa /etc/usermgmt.conf
file.
.It Fl v
Enables verbose mode - explain the commands as they are executed.
.El
.Pp
Once the information has been verified,
.Nm
uses
.Xr pwd_mkdb 8
to update the user database.
This is run in the background and,
at very large sites, could take several minutes.
Until this update is completed, the password file is unavailable for other
updates and the new information is not available to programs.
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width /etc/usermgmt.conf -compact
.It Pa /etc/usermgmt.conf
.It Pa /etc/skel/*
.It Pa /etc/login.conf
.El
.Sh EXIT STATUS
.Ex -std useradd
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr chpass 1 ,
.Xr group 5 ,
.Xr login.conf 5 ,
.Xr passwd 5 ,
.Xr usermgmt.conf 5 ,
.Xr pwd_mkdb 8 ,
.Xr user 8 ,
.Xr userdel 8 ,
.Xr usermod 8
.Sh STANDARDS
Other implementations of the
.Nm useradd
utility use the
.Ar inactive-time
parameter to refer to the maximum number of days allowed between logins (this
is used to lock "stale" accounts that have not been used for a period of time).
However, on
.Ox
systems this parameter refers instead to the password change time.
This is due to differences in the
.Xr passwd 5
database compared to other operating systems.
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
utility first appeared in
.Ox 2.7 .
.Sh AUTHORS
The
.Nm
utility was written by
.An Alistair G. Crooks Aq Mt agc@NetBSD.org .