How to add users to a system?#

The command used to create a new user is called useradd.

Just by running useradd your_user a new user named your_user will be created, but you probably want to add some parameters. The options of the useradd command are:

  • -m This will create a home directory in /home/your_user

  • -G group_name will add the newly created user to the here specified groups (wheel is an often used group since it allows the user to use sudo)

  • -s path/to/shell changes the default shell of the user. The available shells and their paths can be checked with cat /etc/shells. If the shell you want to use is not available it can be installed using the OSs package manager.

Modifying an existing user#

In case you forgot to set something when creating the user, you can do that afterwards using the usermod command.

  • -aG to add another group to a user

  • -s to change the users default shell

For any additional options you might want to know you can always check the man pages using man usermod or any other command.