Are you a perfect user in Linux or need one more user for your Linux system/server.
Today I am going to cover how to create user in Linux or add a user in Ubuntu by command. Having multiple users with different privileges is good for linux system security propose.
This article is not to cover types of users in Linux.
‘useradd’ and adduser are the two most popular commands in Linux to create a new user. You are a system administrator and asked to create a new user account in Linux with some specific properties, limitations, and comments, etc.
useradd command in Linux is more powerful than the adduser. adduser is a low-level utility, that is used for adding new user accounts only, cannot add specific properties for the same user.
Most Linux System Administrator used to useradd command rather than adduser.
When you run ‘useradd‘ command in Linux, it performs the following major operations:
- It edits /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/group and /etc/gshadow files for the newly created User account.
- Creates and populate a home directory for the new user.
- Sets permissions and ownership to the home directory.
Article Contents
- How to add user in Ubuntu 20.04
- Generate password of new user
- useradd in Linux for creating a new user
- Create user in Linux with different Home directory
- Create user in Linux with Specific User ID and Group ID
- Create user in Linux without Home Directory
- Create user in Linux with account Expiry Date
- Add a user with the custom comment in Linux
How to add a user in Ubuntu 20.04
Add user by using adduser command syntax is given in image below
useradd in Linux for creating a new user
useradd command in Ubuntu or other Linux is used to create users. But normal user can’t run this command, and will get error “Permission denied”
Only root user or sudo user can perform this task, When you create a user at the time of installation Ubuntu has sudo privileges and run useradd command.
I have Ubuntu 20.04 and have vijay user that has sudo privileges. if you are sudo user then add prefix sudo to every command otherwise you will get an error.
Syntax “sudo useradd ram” creates a user with name ram without a home directory.
Syntax ls /home is showing contents of /home directory
[email protected]:~$useradd ram useradd: Permission denied. useradd: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later. [email protected]:~$sudo useradd ram [email protected]:~$ls /home/ cyrage vijay [email protected]:~$
Following syntax and result is confirmed user has been created.
[email protected]:~$sudo cat /etc/passwd | grep ram ram:x:1002:1002::/home/ram:/bin/sh [email protected]:~$
Generate password of new user
When you create a user with useradd command, the user is created without a password. So you need to create/generate a new password for newly created user ‘ram’.
When you run “sudo passwd username” command it will ask for a new password and retype the same password again.
Warning: Enter type two times the same it will not display on the screen when you type and retype.
[email protected]:~$sudo passwd ram New password: Retype new password: passwd: password updated successfully [email protected]:~$
Create a user in Linux with different Home directory
When you create user in Linux, the home directory for the user has been created in /home directory by default at the same time.
[email protected]:~$sudo useradd -m ansh [email protected]:~$ls /home/ ansh cyrage vijay [email protected]:~$
If you want to assign a different home directory to the user then you can run the following syntax:
$sudo useradd -d /path/different_Directory Username
I am going to create new user name nonu with home directory /data/project
[email protected]:~$sudo useradd -d /data/project/ nonu [email protected]:~$sudo cat /etc/passwd | grep nonu nonu:x:1004:1004::/data/project/:/bin/sh [email protected]:~$
Create a user in Linux with Specific User ID and Group ID
you can use -u [USER ID NO] for assign userID -g [GROUP ID NO.] for Group ID.
For Example, I am going to create a user with the name Surya and userid 1200 and group id 5000. I got an error when I performed the same task
When you assign Group ID, Any group must have same group ID assigned.
[email protected]:~$sudo useradd -u 1200 -g 5000 surya useradd: group '5000' does not exist [email protected]:~$
I checked by using following commands for looking group ID then I changed group ID in my next command
Hurr I got success.
[email protected]:~$sudo tail -5 /etc/passwd systemd-coredump:x:999:999:systemd Core Dumper:/:/sbin/nologin cyrage:x:1001:1001:Cyrage,,,:/home/cyrage:/bin/bash ram:x:1002:1002::/home/ram:/bin/sh ansh:x:1003:1003::/home/ansh:/bin/sh nonu:x:1004:1004::/data/project/:/bin/sh [email protected]:~$sudo useradd -u 1200 -g 1004 surya [email protected]:~$sudo cat /etc/passwd | grep surya surya:x:1200:1004::/home/surya:/bin/sh/ [email protected]:~$
Create a user in Linux without Home Directory
If you want to create a new user in Linux without home directory use the -M [Capital M] option followed by useradd command
Look on the syntax given below
[email protected]:~$sudo useradd -M anshika [email protected]:~$ls /home/ ansh cyrage vijay [email protected]:~$
Create a user in Linux with account Expiry Date
-e option is used to add expiry date with useradd command. Date format should be YYYY-MM-DD.
Use chage -l command to see details:
[email protected]:~$sudo useradd -e 2020-5-29 hema [email protected]:~$sudo chage -l hema Last password change : May 11, 2020 Password expires : never Password inactive : never Account expires : May 29, 2020 Minimum number of days between password change : 0 Maximum number of days between password change : 99999 Number of days of warning before password expires : 7 [email protected]:~$
Add a user with the custom comment in Linux
Comment is playing role to define special about user. You can use “Dont Delete this account” or “This is account of HR” or Be careful this CEO’s account” or Full name of user.
Other system administrator can identify user with this comment. -c option is used to define comment.
The comment will display in /etc/passwd file. you can see in result.
[email protected]:~$sudo useradd -c "Amitabh Bachhan" amit [email protected]:~$sudo cat /etc/passwd | grep amit amit:x:1203:1203:Amitabh Bachhan:/home/amit:/bin/sh [email protected]:~$