How to create a user without useradd command
To create a user without useradd command
In Linux, the useradd command is one of the most popular commands for adding a normal user for Linux distribution. On contrary to what one may think, it is really possible to create a user without making use of the useradd command. In this tutorial you' ll get to know the method to create a user without the usage of useradd command.
Creating a user
Make an entry of user details in /etc/passwd location, your syntax for the entry must be as follows.
Syntax
username:password:UID:GID:Comments:Home_Directory:Login Shell
Add a new entry in /etc/passwd file by making use of the following action.
[root@localhost ~]# vim /etc/passwd
user1:x:503:503:testuser:/home/user1:/bin/bash
You will have to create a group with same name. So add a new entry in /etc/group by making use of the following action.
[root@localhost ~]# vim /etc/group
user1:x:503:
Now, you need to assign a password to the user and for that you shall use the following command.
[root@localhost home]# passwd user1
Changing password for user user1.
New password:
Retype new password:
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.
After that, you shall check and see the password by using the following command.
[root@localhost home]# cat /etc/shadow |grep user1
user1:$6$26iFvYjR$tMtV35CcMTMjZKaFGUG4A30drTZIvqdSDkhNW8rG0PQ44U6ij4hLo9/H/Jxrr7QPmgExum2cKMTQayK99uINC1:17494::::::
You shall now try to login with your newly created user. Do it the following way.
[root@localhost home]# su user1
bash-4.1$
bash-4.1$
bash-4.1$
You should see [user1@localhost ~]$ instead of bash-4.1$, this is because the newly created user doesn' t have home directory, and you should add .bash files from /etc/skel in the following manner.
[root@localhost home]# mkdir /home/user1
[root@localhost home]# cd /home/user1
[root@localhost user1]# cp -v /etc/skel/.bash* .
`/etc/skel/.bash_logout' -> `./.bash_logout'
`/etc/skel/.bash_profile' -> `./.bash_profile'
`/etc/skel/.bashrc' -> `./.bashrc'
You can check out the bash files in the newly copied location by making use of the list command.
[root@localhost user1]# ls -la
total 20
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 24 15:26 .
drwxr-xr-x. 4 root root 4096 Nov 24 15:26 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 18 Nov 24 15:26 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 176 Nov 24 15:26 .bash_profile
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 124 Nov 24 15:26 .bashrc
Now, try to switch over to your new user by making use of the following command.
[root@localhost user1]# su user1 [user1@localhost ~]$
With this, this tutorial comes to an end.