xref: /openbsd-src/usr.sbin/user/useradd.8 (revision f2da64fbbbf1b03f09f390ab01267c93dfd77c4c)
1.\" $OpenBSD: useradd.8,v 1.34 2016/08/14 09:52:08 tb Exp $
2.\" $NetBSD: useradd.8,v 1.26 2003/02/25 10:36:21 wiz Exp $
3.\"
4.\" Copyright (c) 1999 Alistair G. Crooks.  All rights reserved.
5.\"
6.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
7.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
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9.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
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13.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
14.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
15.\"    must display the following acknowledgement:
16.\"	This product includes software developed by Alistair G. Crooks.
17.\" 4. The name of the author may not be used to endorse or promote
18.\"    products derived from this software without specific prior written
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33.\"
34.Dd $Mdocdate: August 14 2016 $
35.Dt USERADD 8
36.Os
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm useradd
39.Nd add a user to the system
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.Nm useradd
42.Fl D
43.Op Fl b Ar base-directory
44.Op Fl e Ar expiry-time
45.Op Fl f Ar inactive-time
46.Op Fl g Ar gid | name | Cm =uid
47.Op Fl k Ar skel-directory
48.Op Fl L Ar login-class
49.Op Fl r Ar low Ns .. Ns Ar high
50.Op Fl s Ar shell
51.Nm useradd
52.Op Fl mov
53.Op Fl b Ar base-directory
54.Op Fl c Ar comment
55.Op Fl d Ar home-directory
56.Op Fl e Ar expiry-time
57.Op Fl f Ar inactive-time
58.Op Fl G Ar secondary-group Ns Op , Ns Ar group , Ns ...
59.Op Fl g Ar gid | name | Cm =uid
60.Op Fl k Ar skel-directory
61.Op Fl L Ar login-class
62.Op Fl p Ar password
63.Op Fl r Ar low Ns .. Ns Ar high
64.Op Fl s Ar shell
65.Op Fl u Ar uid
66.Ar user
67.Sh DESCRIPTION
68The
69.Nm useradd
70utility adds a user to the system, creating and
71populating a home directory if necessary.
72Any skeleton files will be provided
73for the new user if they exist in the
74.Ar skel-directory
75directory (see the
76.Fl k
77option).
78Default values for
79the base directory,
80the time of password expiry,
81the time of account expiry,
82primary group,
83the skeleton directory,
84the range from which the UID will be allocated,
85and default login shell
86can be provided in the
87.Pa /etc/usermgmt.conf
88file, which, if running as root, is created using the built-in defaults if
89it does not exist.
90.Pp
91The first form of the command shown above (using the
92.Fl D
93option)
94sets and displays the defaults for the
95.Nm
96utility.
97.Bl -tag -width Ds
98.It Fl b Ar base-directory
99Sets the base directory.
100This is the directory to which the user directory is added,
101which will be created if the
102.Fl m
103option is specified and no
104.Fl d
105option is specified.
106.It Fl D
107Without any further options,
108.Fl D
109will show the current defaults which
110will be used by the
111.Nm
112utility.
113Together with one of the options shown for the first version
114of the command,
115.Fl D
116will set the default to be the new value.
117See
118.Xr usermgmt.conf 5
119for more information.
120.It Fl e Ar expiry-time
121Sets the default time at which new accounts will expire.
122It should be entered in the form
123.Dq month day year ,
124where month is the month name (the first three characters are
125sufficient), day is the day of the month, and year is the year.
126Time in seconds since the Epoch (UTC) is also valid.
127A value of 0 can be used to disable this feature.
128.It Fl f Ar inactive-time
129Sets the time at which passwords of new accounts will expire.
130Also see the
131.Fl e
132option above.
133.It Fl g Ar gid | name | Cm =uid
134Sets the default group for new users.
135.It Fl k Ar skel-directory
136Sets the skeleton directory in which to find files with
137which to populate new users' home directories.
138.It Fl L Ar login-class
139Sets the default login class for new users.
140See
141.Xr login.conf 5
142for more information on user login classes.
143.It Xo
144.Fl r Ar low Ns .. Ns Ar high
145.Xc
146Sets the low and high bounds of UID ranges for new users.
147A new user can only be created if there are UIDs which can be assigned
148from one of the free ranges.
149.It Fl s Ar shell
150Sets the default login shell for new users.
151.El
152.Pp
153In the second form of the command,
154after setting any defaults, and then reading values from
155.Pa /etc/usermgmt.conf ,
156the following command line options are processed:
157.Bl -tag -width Ds
158.It Fl b Ar base-directory
159Sets the base directory name, in which the user's new home
160directory will be created, should the
161.Fl m
162option be specified.
163.It Fl c Ar comment
164Sets the comment field (also, for historical reasons known as the
165GECOS field) which will be added for the user, and typically will include
166the user's full name and, perhaps, contact information for the user.
167.It Fl d Ar home-directory
168Sets the home directory which will be created and populated for the user,
169should the
170.Fl m
171option be specified.
172.It Fl e Ar expiry-time
173Sets the time at which the user account will expire.
174It should be entered in the form
175.Dq month day year ,
176where month is the month name (the first three characters are
177sufficient), day is the day of the month, and year is the year.
178Time in seconds since the Epoch (UTC) is also valid.
179A value of 0 can be used to disable this feature.
180See
181.Xr passwd 5
182for more details.
183.It Fl f Ar inactive-time
184Sets the time at which the current password will expire.
185Also see the
186.Fl e
187option above.
188.It Fl G Ar secondary-group Ns Op , Ns Ar group , Ns ...
189Sets the secondary groups to which the user will be added in the
190.Pa /etc/group
191file.
192.It Fl g Ar gid | name | Cm =uid
193Gives the group name or identifier to be used for the new user's primary group.
194If this is the special string
195.Cm =uid ,
196then a UID and GID will be picked which are both unique
197and the same, and a line added to
198.Pa /etc/group
199to describe the new group.
200.It Fl k Ar skel-directory
201Gives the skeleton directory in which to find files
202with which to populate the new user's home directory.
203.It Fl L Ar login-class
204This option sets the login class for the user being created.
205See
206.Xr login.conf 5
207for more information on user login classes.
208.It Fl m
209Create a new home directory for the new user.
210.It Fl o
211Allow the new user to have a UID which is already in use for another user.
212.It Fl p Ar password
213Specifies a password encrypted with
214.Xr encrypt 1
215for the new user.
216This password can then be changed by using the
217.Xr chpass 1
218utility.
219If this option is not specified, and no default exists in
220.Pa /etc/usermgmt.conf ,
221the account will be disabled by default.
222.It Fl s Ar shell
223Specifies the login shell for the new user.
224.It Fl u Ar uid
225Specifies a UID for the new user.
226Boundaries for this value can be preset for all users
227by using the
228.Ar range
229field in the
230.Pa /etc/usermgmt.conf
231file.
232.It Fl v
233Enables verbose mode - explain the commands as they are executed.
234.El
235.Pp
236Once the information has been verified,
237.Nm
238uses
239.Xr pwd_mkdb 8
240to update the user database.
241This is run in the background and,
242at very large sites, could take several minutes.
243Until this update is completed, the password file is unavailable for other
244updates and the new information is not available to programs.
245.Sh FILES
246.Bl -tag -width /etc/usermgmt.conf -compact
247.It Pa /etc/usermgmt.conf
248.It Pa /etc/skel/*
249.It Pa /etc/login.conf
250.El
251.Sh EXIT STATUS
252.Ex -std useradd
253.Sh SEE ALSO
254.Xr chpass 1 ,
255.Xr group 5 ,
256.Xr login.conf 5 ,
257.Xr passwd 5 ,
258.Xr usermgmt.conf 5 ,
259.Xr pwd_mkdb 8 ,
260.Xr user 8 ,
261.Xr userdel 8 ,
262.Xr usermod 8
263.Sh STANDARDS
264Other implementations of the
265.Nm useradd
266utility use the
267.Ar inactive-time
268parameter to refer to the maximum number of days allowed between logins (this
269is used to lock "stale" accounts that have not been used for a period of time).
270However, on
271.Ox
272systems this parameter refers instead to the password change time.
273This is due to differences in the
274.Xr passwd 5
275database compared to other operating systems.
276.Sh HISTORY
277The
278.Nm
279utility first appeared in
280.Ox 2.7 .
281.Sh AUTHORS
282The
283.Nm
284utility was written by
285.An Alistair G. Crooks Aq Mt agc@NetBSD.org .
286