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25 .\" $FreeBSD: src/usr.sbin/pw/pw.8,v 1.19.2.12 2003/05/08 15:01:44 trhodes Exp $
26 .\" $DragonFly: src/usr.sbin/pw/pw.8,v 1.4 2007/07/30 22:11:34 swildner Exp $
33 .Nd create, remove, modify & display system users and groups
72 .Op Fl u Ar min , Ns Ar max
73 .Op Fl i Ar min , Ns Ar max
155 .Op Fl m Ar newmembers
189 utility is a command-line based editor for the system
193 files, allowing the superuser an easy to use and standardized way of adding,
194 modifying and removing users and groups.
197 only operates on the local user and group files.
199 users and groups must be
205 utility handles updating the
209 and the secure and insecure
210 password database files, and must be run as root.
212 The first one or two keywords provided to
214 on the command line provide the context for the remainder of the arguments.
233 all mean the same thing.)
234 This flexibility is useful for interactive scripts calling
236 for user and group database manipulation.
237 Following these keywords, you may optionally specify the user or group name or numeric
238 id as an alternative to using the
244 The following flags are common to most or all modes of operation:
246 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
248 This flag sets an alternate location for the password, group and configuration files,
249 and may be used to maintain a user/group database in an alternate location.
250 If this switch is specified, the system
252 will not be sourced for default configuration data, but the file pw.conf in the
253 specified directory will be used instead (or none, if it does not exist).
256 flag may be used to override this behaviour.
257 As an exception to the general rule where options must follow the operation
260 flag may be used on the command line before the operation keyword.
266 to obtain policy information on how new user accounts and groups are to be created.
269 option specifies a different configuration file.
270 While most of the contents of the configuration file may be overridden via
271 command-line options, it may be more convenient to keep standard information in a
274 Use of this option causes
276 to suppress error messages, which may be useful in interactive environments where it
277 is preferable to interpret status codes returned by
279 rather than messing up a carefully formatted display.
281 This option is available in
285 operations, and tells
287 to output the result of the operation without updating the user or group
291 option to switch between standard passwd and readable formats.
293 Using this option with any of the update modes causes
297 after changing to the directory
299 This is intended to allow automatic updating of
302 If separate passwd and group files are being used by
306 option to specify the location of the
308 passwd database so that
310 will concurrently update it with the system password
314 The following options apply to the
320 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
322 Specify the user/account name.
324 Specify the user/account numeric id.
326 Usually, you only need to provide one or the other of these options, as the account
327 name will imply the uid, or vice versa.
328 However, there are times when you need to provide both.
329 For example, when changing the uid of an existing user with
331 or overriding the default uid when creating a new account.
334 to automatically allocate the uid to a new user with
341 You may also provide either the account or userid immediately after the
347 keywords on the command line without using the
354 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
356 This field sets the contents of the passwd GECOS field, which normally contains up
357 to four comma-separated fields containing the user's full name, office or location,
358 and work and home phone numbers.
359 These sub-fields are used by convention only, however, and are optional.
360 If this field is to contain spaces, you need to quote the comment itself with double
363 Avoid using commas in this field as these are used as sub-field separators, and the
366 character also cannot be used as this is the field separator for the passwd
369 This option sets the account's home directory.
370 Normally, you will only use this if the home directory is to be different from the
371 default determined from
375 with the account name as a subdirectory.
377 Set the account's expiration date.
378 Format of the date is either a
380 time in decimal, or a date in
382 format, where dd is the day, mmm is the month, either in numeric or alphabetic format
383 ('Jan', 'Feb', etc) and year is either a two or four digit year.
384 This option also accepts a relative date in the form
388 is a decimal, octal (leading 0) or hexadecimal (leading 0x) digit followed by the
389 number of Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months or Years from the current date at
390 which the expiration date is to be set.
392 Set the account's password expiration date.
393 This field is similar to the account expiration date option, except that it
394 applies to forced password changes.
395 This is set in the same manner as the
399 Set the account's primary group to the given group.
401 may be defined by either its name or group number.
402 .It Fl G Ar grouplist
403 Set additional group memberships for an account.
405 is a comma-separated list of group names or group numbers.
406 The user's name is added to the group lists in
409 removed from any groups not specified in
411 Note: a user should not be added to their primary group with
413 Also, group membership changes do not take effect for current user login
414 sessions, requiring the user to reconnect to be affected by the changes.
416 This option sets the login class for the user being created.
421 for more information on user login classes.
423 This option instructs
425 to attempt to create the user's home directory.
426 While primarily useful when adding a new account with
428 this may also be of use when moving an existing user's home directory elsewhere on
430 The new home directory is populated with the contents of the
432 directory, which typically contains a set of shell configuration files that the
433 user may personalize to taste.
436 is used on an account with
438 existing configuration files in the user's home directory are
440 overwritten from the skeleton files.
442 When a user's home directory is created, it will by default be a subdirectory of the
444 directory as specified by the
446 option (see below), bearing the name of the new account.
447 This can be overridden by the
449 option on the command line, if desired.
453 directory, from which basic startup and configuration files are copied when
454 the user's home directory is created.
455 This option only has meaning when used with the
461 Set or changes the user's login shell to
463 If the path to the shell program is omitted,
469 and fills it in as appropriate.
470 Note that unless you have a specific reason to do so, you should avoid
471 specifying the path - this will allow
473 to validate that the program exists and is executable.
474 Specifying a full path (or supplying a blank "" shell) avoids this check
475 and allows for such entries as
477 that should be set for accounts not intended for interactive login.
479 This option provides a special interface by which interactive scripts can
480 set an account password using
482 Because the command line and environment are fundamentally insecure mechanisms
483 by which programs can accept information,
485 will only allow setting of account and group passwords via a file descriptor
486 (usually a pipe between an interactive script and the program).
492 all possess mechanisms by which this can be done.
495 will prompt for the user's password if
499 as the file descriptor on which to read the password.
500 Note that this password will be read only once and is intended
501 for use by a script rather than for interactive use.
502 If you wish to have new password confirmation along the lines of
504 this must be implemented as part of an interactive script that calls
509 is given as the argument
511 then the password will be set to
513 rendering the account inaccessible via password-based login.
516 It is possible to use
518 to create a new account that duplicates an existing user id.
519 While this is normally considered an error and will be rejected, the
521 option overrides the check for duplicates and allows the duplication of
523 This may be useful if you allow the same user to login under
524 different contexts (different group allocations, different home
525 directory, different shell) while providing basically the same
526 permissions for access to the user's files in each account.
530 command also has the ability to set new user and group defaults by using the
533 Instead of adding a new user,
535 writes a new set of defaults to its configuration file,
539 option, you must not use either
543 or an error will result.
546 changes the meaning of several command line switches in the
550 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
552 Set default values in
554 configuration file, or a different named configuration file if the
558 Set the root directory in which user home directories are created.
559 The default value for this is
561 but it may be set elsewhere as desired.
563 Set the default account expiration period in days.
566 the argument must be numeric, which specifies the number of days after creation when
567 the account is to expire.
568 A value of 0 suppresses automatic calculation of the expiry date.
570 Set the default password expiration period in days.
572 Set the default group for new users.
573 If a blank group is specified using
575 then new users will be allocated their own private primary group
576 with the same name as their login name.
577 If a group is supplied, either its name or uid may be given as an argument.
578 .It Fl G Ar grouplist
579 Set the default groups in which new users are granted membership.
580 This is a separate set of groups from the primary group, and you should avoid
581 nominating the same group as both primary and extra groups.
582 In other words, these extra groups determine membership in groups
586 is a comma-separated list of group names or ids, and are always
589 by their symbolic names.
591 This option sets the default login class for new users.
595 directory, from which prototype shell and other initialization files are copied when
597 creates a user's home directory.
599 .Fl u Ar min , Ns Ar max ,
600 .Fl i Ar min , Ns Ar max
602 These options set the minimum and maximum user and group ids allocated for new accounts
603 and groups created by
605 The default values for each is 1000 minimum and 32000 maximum.
609 are both numbers, where max must be greater than min, and both must be between 0
611 In general, user and group ids less than 100 are reserved for use by the system,
612 and numbers greater than 32000 may also be reserved for special purposes (used by
613 some system daemons).
617 option sets the default method used to set passwords for newly created user accounts.
621 .Bl -tag -width random -offset indent -compact
623 disable login on newly created accounts
625 force the password to be the account name
627 force a blank password
629 generate a random password
636 methods are the most secure; in the former case,
638 generates a password and prints it to stdout, which is suitable where you issue
639 users with passwords to access their accounts rather than having the user nominate
640 their own (possibly poorly chosen) password.
643 method requires that the superuser use
645 to render the account accessible with a password.
647 This sets the pathname of the database used by
649 if you are not sharing
651 .Pa /etc/master.passwd
654 You should only set this option for
661 command has only three valid options.
666 options have already been covered above.
667 The additional option is:
668 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
672 to remove the user's home directory and all of its contents.
675 utility errs on the side of caution when removing files from the system.
676 Firstly, it will not do so if the uid of the account being removed is also used by
677 another account on the system, and the 'home' directory in the password file is
678 a valid path that commences with the character
680 Secondly, it will only remove files and directories that are actually owned by
681 the user, or symbolic links owned by anyone under the user's home directory.
682 Finally, after deleting all contents owned by the user only empty directories
684 If any additional cleanup work is required, this is left to the administrator.
687 Mail spool files and crontabs are always removed when an account is deleted as these
688 are unconditionally attached to the user name.
689 Jobs queued for processing by
691 are also removed if the user's uid is unique and not also used by another account on the
696 command allows viewing of an account in one of two formats.
697 By default, the format is identical to the format used in
698 .Pa /etc/master.passwd
699 with the password field replaced with a
705 outputs the account details in a more human readable form.
708 option is used, the account details are shown in v7 format.
711 option lists all users currently on file.
716 to print the details of an account even if it does not exist.
720 returns the next available user and group ids separated by a colon.
721 This is normally of interest only to interactive scripts or front-ends
729 options (explained at the start of the previous section) are available
730 with the group manipulation commands.
731 Other common options to all group-related commands are:
732 .Bl -tag -width "-m newmembers"
734 Specify the group name.
736 Specify the group numeric id.
738 As with the account name and id fields, you will usually only need
739 to supply one of these, as the group name implies the uid and vice
741 You will only need to use both when setting a specific group id
742 against a new group or when changing the uid of an existing group.
743 .It Fl M Ar memberlist
744 This option provides an alternative way to add existing users to a
745 new group (in groupadd) or replace an existing membership list (in
748 is a comma separated list of valid and existing user names or uids.
749 .It Fl m Ar newmembers
752 this option allows the
754 of existing users to a group without replacing the existing list of
756 Login names or user ids may be used, and duplicate users are
763 option that allows allocation of an existing group id to a new group.
764 The default action is to reject an attempt to add a group, and this option overrides
765 the check for duplicate group ids.
766 There is rarely any need to duplicate a group id.
770 command adds one additional option:
772 .Bl -tag -width "-m newmembers"
774 This option allows changing of an existing group name to
776 The new name must not already exist, and any attempt to duplicate an existing group
777 name will be rejected.
788 to specify the group id.
791 option does not apply to the
797 returns the next available group id on standard output.
802 supports a simple password locking mechanism for users; it works by
803 prepending the string
805 to the beginning of the password field in
807 to prevent successful authentication.
813 commands take a user name or uid of the account to lock or unlock,
819 options as described above are accepted by these commands.
821 .Bl -tag -width /etc/master.passwd.new -compact
822 .It Pa /etc/master.passwd
825 A Version 7 format password file
826 .It Pa /etc/login.conf
827 The user capabilities database
830 .It Pa /etc/master.passwd.new
831 Temporary copy of the master password file
832 .It Pa /etc/passwd.new
833 Temporary copy of the Version 7 password file
834 .It Pa /etc/group.new
835 Temporary copy of the group file
837 Pw default options file
838 .It Pa /var/log/userlog
839 User/group modification logfile
844 utility returns EXIT_SUCCESS on successful operation, otherwise
847 following exit codes defined by
854 Command line syntax errors (invalid keyword, unknown option).
859 Attempting to run one of the update modes as non-root.
864 Memory allocation error.
866 Read error from password file descriptor.
871 Bad or invalid data provided or missing on the command line or
872 via the password file descriptor.
874 Attempted to remove, rename root account or change its uid.
879 Skeleton directory is invalid or does not exist.
881 Base home directory is invalid or does not exist.
883 Invalid or non-existent shell specified.
888 User, user id, group or group id specified does not exist.
890 User or group recorded, added, or modified unexpectedly disappeared.
895 No more group or user ids available within specified range.
900 Unable to rewrite configuration file.
902 Error updating group or user database files.
904 Update error for passwd or group database files.
909 No base home directory configured.
913 For a summary of options available with each command, you can use
914 .Dl pw [command] help
917 lists all available options for the useradd operation.
921 utility allows 8-bit characters in the passwd GECOS field (user's full name,
922 office, work and home phone number subfields), but disallows them in
923 user login and group names.
924 Use 8-bit characters with caution, as connection to the Internet will
925 require that your mail transport program supports 8BITMIME, and will
926 convert headers containing 8-bit characters to 7-bit quoted-printable
930 Use of 8-bit characters in the GECOS field should be used in
931 conjunction with the user's default locale and character set
932 and should not be implemented without their use.
933 Using 8-bit characters may also affect other
934 programs that transmit the contents of the GECOS field over the
937 and a small number of TCP/IP clients, such as IRC, where full names
938 specified in the passwd file may be used by default.
942 utility writes a log to the
944 file when actions such as user or group additions or deletions occur.
945 The location of this logfile can be changed in
959 utility was written to mimic many of the options used in the SYSV
961 support suite, but is modified for passwd and group fields specific to
964 operating system, and combines all of the major elements
965 into a single command.
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