2 .\" David L. Nugent. All rights reserved.
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25 .\" $FreeBSD: src/usr.sbin/pw/pw.8,v 1.45 2011/12/22 03:36:54 eadler Exp $
32 .Nd create, remove, modify & display system users and groups
55 .Op Fl h Ar fd | Fl H Ar fd
73 .Op Fl u Ar min , Ns Ar max
74 .Op Fl i Ar min , Ns Ar max
107 .Op Fl h Ar fd | Fl H Ar fd
136 .Op Fl h Ar fd | Fl H Ar fd
157 .Op Fl m Ar newmembers
158 .Op Fl d Ar oldmembers
159 .Op Fl h Ar fd | Fl H Ar fd
192 utility is a command-line based editor for the system
196 files, allowing the superuser an easy to use and standardized way of adding,
197 modifying and removing users and groups.
200 only operates on the local user and group files.
202 users and groups must be
208 utility handles updating the
212 and the secure and insecure
213 password database files, and must be run as root.
215 The first one or two keywords provided to
217 on the command line provide the context for the remainder of the arguments.
236 all mean the same thing.)
237 This flexibility is useful for interactive scripts calling
239 for user and group database manipulation.
240 Following these keywords, you may optionally specify the user or group name or numeric
241 id as an alternative to using the
247 The following flags are common to most or all modes of operation:
248 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
250 This flag sets an alternate location for the password, group and configuration files,
251 and may be used to maintain a user/group database in an alternate location.
252 If this switch is specified, the system
254 will not be sourced for default configuration data, but the file pw.conf in the
255 specified directory will be used instead (or none, if it does not exist).
258 flag may be used to override this behaviour.
259 As an exception to the general rule where options must follow the operation
262 flag may be used on the command line before the operation keyword.
268 to obtain policy information on how new user accounts and groups are to be created.
271 option specifies a different configuration file.
272 While most of the contents of the configuration file may be overridden via
273 command-line options, it may be more convenient to keep standard information in a
276 Use of this option causes
278 to suppress error messages, which may be useful in interactive environments where it
279 is preferable to interpret status codes returned by
281 rather than messing up a carefully formatted display.
283 This option is available in
287 operations, and tells
289 to output the result of the operation without updating the user or group
293 option to switch between standard passwd and readable formats.
295 Using this option with any of the update modes causes
299 after changing to the directory
301 This is intended to allow automatic updating of
304 If separate passwd and group files are being used by
308 option to specify the location of the
310 passwd database so that
312 will concurrently update it with the system password
316 The following options apply to the
321 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
323 Specify the user/account name.
325 Specify the user/account numeric id.
327 Usually, you only need to provide one or the other of these options, as the account
328 name will imply the uid, or vice versa.
329 However, there are times when you need to provide both.
330 For example, when changing the uid of an existing user with
332 or overriding the default uid when creating a new account.
335 to automatically allocate the uid to a new user with
342 You may also provide either the account or userid immediately after the
348 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, space or tab-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.
434 Files in this directory are usually named
435 .Pa dot . Ns Aq Ar config
438 prefix will be stripped.
441 is used on an account with
443 existing configuration files in the user's home directory are
445 overwritten from the skeleton files.
447 When a user's home directory is created, it will by default be a subdirectory of the
449 directory as specified by the
451 option (see below), bearing the name of the new account.
452 This can be overridden by the
454 option on the command line, if desired.
456 Create the user's home directory with the specified
458 modified by the current
460 If omitted, it is derived from the parent process'
462 This option is only useful in combination with the
468 directory, from which basic startup and configuration files are copied when
469 the user's home directory is created.
470 This option only has meaning when used with the
476 Set or changes the user's login shell to
478 If the path to the shell program is omitted,
484 and fills it in as appropriate.
485 Note that unless you have a specific reason to do so, you should avoid
486 specifying the path - this will allow
488 to validate that the program exists and is executable.
489 Specifying a full path (or supplying a blank "" shell) avoids this check
490 and allows for such entries as
492 that should be set for accounts not intended for interactive login.
494 This option provides a special interface by which interactive scripts can
495 set an account password using
497 Because the command line and environment are fundamentally insecure mechanisms
498 by which programs can accept information,
500 will only allow setting of account and group passwords via a file descriptor
501 (usually a pipe between an interactive script and the program).
507 all possess mechanisms by which this can be done.
510 will prompt for the user's password if
514 as the file descriptor on which to read the password.
515 Note that this password will be read only once and is intended
516 for use by a script rather than for interactive use.
517 If you wish to have new password confirmation along the lines of
519 this must be implemented as part of an interactive script that calls
524 is given as the argument
526 then the password will be set to
528 rendering the account inaccessible via password-based login.
530 Read an encrypted password string from the specified file descriptor.
533 but the password should be supplied already encrypted in a form
534 suitable for writing directly to the password database.
537 It is possible to use
539 to create a new account that duplicates an existing user id.
540 While this is normally considered an error and will be rejected, the
542 option overrides the check for duplicates and allows the duplication of
544 This may be useful if you allow the same user to login under
545 different contexts (different group allocations, different home
546 directory, different shell) while providing basically the same
547 permissions for access to the user's files in each account.
551 command also has the ability to set new user and group defaults by using the
554 Instead of adding a new user,
556 writes a new set of defaults to its configuration file,
560 option, you must not use either
564 or an error will result.
567 changes the meaning of several command line switches in the
571 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
573 Set default values in
575 configuration file, or a different named configuration file if the
579 Set the root directory in which user home directories are created.
580 The default value for this is
582 but it may be set elsewhere as desired.
584 Set the default account expiration period in days.
587 the argument must be numeric, which specifies the number of days after creation when
588 the account is to expire.
589 A value of 0 suppresses automatic calculation of the expiry date.
591 Set the default password expiration period in days.
593 Set the default group for new users.
594 If a blank group is specified using
596 then new users will be allocated their own private primary group
597 with the same name as their login name.
598 If a group is supplied, either its name or uid may be given as an argument.
599 .It Fl G Ar grouplist
600 Set the default groups in which new users are granted membership.
601 This is a separate set of groups from the primary group, and you should avoid
602 nominating the same group as both primary and extra groups.
603 In other words, these extra groups determine membership in groups
607 is a comma-separated list of group names or ids, and are always
610 by their symbolic names.
612 This option sets the default login class for new users.
616 directory, from which prototype shell and other initialization files are copied when
618 creates a user's home directory.
621 for naming conventions of these files.
623 .Fl u Ar min , Ns Ar max ,
624 .Fl i Ar min , Ns Ar max
626 These options set the minimum and maximum user and group ids allocated for new accounts
627 and groups created by
629 The default values for each is 1000 minimum and 32000 maximum.
633 are both numbers, where max must be greater than min, and both must be between 0
635 In general, user and group ids less than 100 are reserved for use by the system,
636 and numbers greater than 32000 may also be reserved for special purposes (used by
637 some system daemons).
641 option sets the default method used to set passwords for newly created user accounts.
645 .Bl -tag -width random -offset indent -compact
647 disable login on newly created accounts
649 force the password to be the account name
651 force a blank password
653 generate a random password
660 methods are the most secure; in the former case,
662 generates a password and prints it to stdout, which is suitable where you issue
663 users with passwords to access their accounts rather than having the user nominate
664 their own (possibly poorly chosen) password.
667 method requires that the superuser use
669 to render the account accessible with a password.
671 This sets the pathname of the database used by
673 if you are not sharing
675 .Pa /etc/master.passwd
678 You should only set this option for
685 command has only three valid options.
690 options have already been covered above.
691 The additional option is:
692 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
696 to remove the user's home directory and all of its contents.
699 utility errs on the side of caution when removing files from the system.
700 Firstly, it will not do so if the uid of the account being removed is also used by
701 another account on the system, and the 'home' directory in the password file is
702 a valid path that commences with the character
704 Secondly, it will only remove files and directories that are actually owned by
705 the user, or symbolic links owned by anyone under the user's home directory.
706 Finally, after deleting all contents owned by the user only empty directories
708 If any additional cleanup work is required, this is left to the administrator.
711 Mail spool files and crontabs are always removed when an account is deleted as these
712 are unconditionally attached to the user name.
713 Jobs queued for processing by
715 are also removed if the user's uid is unique and not also used by another account on the
720 command adds one additional option:
721 .Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
723 This option allows changing of an existing account name to
725 The new name must not already exist, and any attempt to duplicate an
726 existing account name will be rejected.
731 command allows viewing of an account in one of two formats.
732 By default, the format is identical to the format used in
733 .Pa /etc/master.passwd
734 with the password field replaced with a
740 outputs the account details in a more human readable form.
743 option is used, the account details are shown in v7 format.
746 option lists all users currently on file.
751 to print the details of an account even if it does not exist.
755 returns the next available user and group ids separated by a colon.
756 This is normally of interest only to interactive scripts or front-ends
764 options (explained at the start of the previous section) are available
765 with the group manipulation commands.
766 Other common options to all group-related commands are:
767 .Bl -tag -width "-m newmembers"
769 Specify the group name.
771 Specify the group numeric id.
773 As with the account name and id fields, you will usually only need
774 to supply one of these, as the group name implies the uid and vice
776 You will only need to use both when setting a specific group id
777 against a new group or when changing the uid of an existing group.
778 .It Fl M Ar memberlist
779 This option provides an alternative way to add existing users to a
780 new group (in groupadd) or replace an existing membership list (in
783 is a comma separated list of valid and existing user names or uids.
784 .It Fl m Ar newmembers
787 this option allows the
789 of existing users to a group without replacing the existing list of
791 Login names or user ids may be used, and duplicate users are
793 .It Fl d Ar oldmembers
796 this option allows the
798 of existing users from a group without replacing the existing list of
800 Login names or user ids may be used, and duplicate users are
807 option that allows allocation of an existing group id to a new group.
808 The default action is to reject an attempt to add a group, and this option overrides
809 the check for duplicate group ids.
810 There is rarely any need to duplicate a group id.
814 command adds one additional option:
815 .Bl -tag -width "-m newmembers"
817 This option allows changing of an existing group name to
819 The new name must not already exist, and any attempt to duplicate an existing group
820 name will be rejected.
831 to specify the group id.
834 option does not apply to the
840 returns the next available group id on standard output.
845 supports a simple password locking mechanism for users; it works by
846 prepending the string
848 to the beginning of the password field in
850 to prevent successful authentication.
856 commands take a user name or uid of the account to lock or unlock,
863 options as described above are accepted by these commands.
865 For a summary of options available with each command, you can use
866 .Dl pw [command] help
869 lists all available options for the useradd operation.
873 utility allows 8-bit characters in the passwd GECOS field (user's full name,
874 office, work and home phone number subfields), but disallows them in
875 user login and group names.
876 Use 8-bit characters with caution, as connection to the Internet will
877 require that your mail transport program supports 8BITMIME, and will
878 convert headers containing 8-bit characters to 7-bit quoted-printable
882 Use of 8-bit characters in the GECOS field should be used in
883 conjunction with the user's default locale and character set
884 and should not be implemented without their use.
885 Using 8-bit characters may also affect other
886 programs that transmit the contents of the GECOS field over the
889 and a small number of TCP/IP clients, such as IRC, where full names
890 specified in the passwd file may be used by default.
894 utility writes a log to the
896 file when actions such as user or group additions or deletions occur.
897 The location of this logfile can be changed in
900 .Bl -tag -width /etc/master.passwd.new -compact
901 .It Pa /etc/master.passwd
904 A Version 7 format password file
905 .It Pa /etc/login.conf
906 The user capabilities database
909 .It Pa /etc/master.passwd.new
910 Temporary copy of the master password file
911 .It Pa /etc/passwd.new
912 Temporary copy of the Version 7 password file
913 .It Pa /etc/group.new
914 Temporary copy of the group file
916 Pw default options file
917 .It Pa /var/log/userlog
918 User/group modification logfile
923 utility returns EXIT_SUCCESS on successful operation, otherwise
926 following exit codes defined by
933 Command line syntax errors (invalid keyword, unknown option).
938 Attempting to run one of the update modes as non-root.
943 Memory allocation error.
945 Read error from password file descriptor.
950 Bad or invalid data provided or missing on the command line or
951 via the password file descriptor.
953 Attempted to remove, rename root account or change its uid.
958 Skeleton directory is invalid or does not exist.
960 Base home directory is invalid or does not exist.
962 Invalid or non-existent shell specified.
967 User, user id, group or group id specified does not exist.
969 User or group recorded, added, or modified unexpectedly disappeared.
974 No more group or user ids available within specified range.
979 Unable to rewrite configuration file.
981 Error updating group or user database files.
983 Update error for passwd or group database files.
988 No base home directory configured.
1004 utility was written to mimic many of the options used in the SYSV
1006 support suite, but is modified for passwd and group fields specific to
1009 operating system, and combines all of the major elements
1010 into a single command.
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