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userdel - Unix, Linux Command
NAME
userdel - delete a user account and related files
SYNOPSIS
Tag | Description |
userdel [options] LOGIN
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DESCRIPTION
The
userdel
command modifies the system account files, deleting all entries that refer to
login_name. The named user must exist.
OPTIONS
The options which apply to the
userdel
command are:
Tag | Description |
-f, --force
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This option forces the removal of the user, even if she is still logged in. It also forces
userdel
to remove the users home directory or her mail spool, even if another user uses the same home directory or if the mail spool is not owned by the specified user. If
USERGROUPS_ENAB
is defined to
yes
in
/etc/login.defs
and if a group exists with the same name as the deleted user, then this group will be removed, even if it is still the primary group of another user.
Note:
This option is dangerous and may leave your system in an inconsistent state.
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-h, --help
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Display help message and exit.
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-r, --remove
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Files in the users home directory will be removed along with the home directory itself and the users mail spool. Files located in other file systems will have to be searched for and deleted manually.
The mail spool is defined by the
MAIL_DIR
variable in the
login.defs
file.
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FILES
Tag | Description |
/etc/group
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Group account information.
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/etc/login.defs
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Shadow password suite configuration.
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/etc/passwd
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User account information.
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/etc/shadow
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Secure user account information.
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EXIT VALUES
The
userdel
command exits with the following values:
Tag | Description |
0
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success
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1
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cant update password file
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2
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invalid command syntax
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6
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specified user doesnt exist
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8
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user currently logged in
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10
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cant update group file
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12
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cant remove home directory
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CAVEATS
userdel
will not allow you to remove an account if the user is currently logged in. You must kill any running processes which belong to an account that you are deleting.
You may not remove any NIS attributes on a NIS client. This must be performed on the NIS server.
If
USERGROUPS_ENAB
is defined to
yes
in
/etc/login.defs,
userdel
will delete the group with the same name as the user. To avoid inconsistencies in the passwd and group databases,
userdel
will check that this group is not used as a primary group for another user, and will just warn without deleting the user otherwise. The
-f
option can force the deletion of this group.
SEE ALSO
chfn(1),
chsh(1),
passwd(1),
login.defs(5),
gpasswd(8),
groupadd(8),
groupdel(8),
groupmod(8),
useradd(8),
usermod(8).
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