ADDUSER(8) 1990 ADDUSER(8)
adduser - procedure for adding new users
D
\bDE
\bES
\bSC
\bCR
\bRI
\bIP
\bPT
\bTI
\bIO
\bON
\bN
A new user must choose a login name, which must not already
appear in /_
\be_
\bt_
\bc/_
\bp_
\ba_
\bs_
\bs_
\bw_
\bdor /_
\be_
\bt_
\bc/_
\ba_
\bl_
\bi_
\ba_
\bs_
\be_
\bs. It must also not
begin with the hyphen (``-'') character. It is strongly
recommended that it be all lower-case, and not contain the
dot (``.'') character, as that tends to confuse mailers. An
account can be added by editing a line into the passwd file;
this must be done with the password file locked e.g. by
using _
\bc_
\bh_
\bp_
\ba_
\bs_
\bs(1) or _
\bv_
\bi_
\bp_
\bw(8).
A new user is given a group and user id. Login's and user
id's should be unique across the system, and often across a
group of systems, since they are used to control file
access. Typically, users working on similar projects will
be put in the same groups. At the University of California,
Berkeley, we have groups for system staff, faculty, graduate
students, and special groups for large projects.
A skeletal account for a new user "ernie" might look like:
ernie::25:30::0:0:Ernie Kovacs,508 Evans
Hall,x7925,642-8202:/a/users/ernie:/bin/csh
For a description of each of these fields, see _
\bp_
\ba_
\bs_
\bs_
\bw_
\bd(5).
It is useful to give new users some help in getting started,
supplying them with a few skeletal files such as ._
\bp_
\br_
\bo_
\bf_
\bi_
\bl_
\be if
they use "/bin/sh", or ._
\bc_
\bs_
\bh_
\br_
\bc and ._
\bl_
\bo_
\bg_
\bi_
\bn if they use
"/bin/csh". The directory "/usr/share/skel" contains skele-
tal definitions of such files. New users should be given
copies of these files which, for instance, use _
\bt_
\bs_
\be_
\bt(1)
automatically at each login.
/etc/master.passwd user database
/usr/share/skel skeletal login directory
S
\bSE
\bEE
\bE A
\bAL
\bLS
\bSO
\bO
chpass(1), finger(1), passwd(1), aliases(5), passwd(5),
User information should (and eventually will) be stored
projects / unix-history / blob