Add a User on Ubuntu Server
Ubuntu Server is like any Linux variety, and has full multi-user capabilities, and a common task on any server is adding users.
useradd
The useradd command will let you add a new user easily from the command line:
useradd <username>
This command adds the user, but without any extra options your user won't have a password or a home directory.
You can use the -d option to set the home directory for the user. The -m option will force useradd to create the home directory. We'll try creating a user account with those options, and then use the passwd command to set the password for the account. You can alternatively set a password using -p on the useradd command, but I prefer to set the password using passwd.
sudo useradd -d /home/testuser -m testuser
sudo passwd testuser
This will create the user named testuser and give them their own home directory in /home/testuser. The files in the new home directory are copied from the /etc/skel folder, which contains default home directory files. If you wanted to set default values for your users, you would do so by modifying or adding files in that directory. If we take a look at the new home directory for the user:
geek@ubuntuServ:/etc/skel$ ls -la /home/testuser
total 20
drwxr-xr-x 2 testuser testuser 4096 2006-12-15 11:34 .
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 2006-12-15 11:37 ..
-rw-r–r– 1 testuser testuser 220 2006-12-15 11:34 .bash_logout
-rw-r–r– 1 testuser testuser 414 2006-12-15 11:34 .bash_profile
-rw-r–r– 1 testuser testuser 2227 2006-12-15 11:34 .bashrc
You'll notice that there are bash scripts in this directory. If you wanted to set default path options for all new users, you would do so by modifying the files in /etc/skel, which would then be used to create these files by the useradd command.
adduser
The adduser command is even easier than the useradd command, because it prompts you for each piece of information. I find it slightly funny that there are two virtually identically named commands that do the same thing, but that's linux for you. Here's the syntax:
adduser <username>
Example:
geek@ubuntuServ:/etc/skel$ sudo adduser thegeek
Password:
Adding user `thegeek'…
Adding new group `thegeek' (1004).
Adding new user `thegeek' (1004) with group `thegeek'.
Creating home directory `/home/thegeek'.
Copying files from `/etc/skel'
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
No password supplied
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully
Changing the user information for thegeek
Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default
Full Name []: The Geek
Room Number []: 0
Work Phone []: 555-1212
Home Phone []: 555-1212
Other []:
Is the information correct? [y/N] y
I would like to create 3 users who will be having administrative rights like ones "root" user eg installation of applications etc.
How would I do it. Please send me a full creation example. Users : Mercy123, Taurai123, Timothy123.
I would also want to be able to check logs to see what each users has been doing, from which machine, when and what time, how will I check that on the system?
Im running Ubuntu Linux 7.04
Im desperately in need of your help.
Taurai Mhokore
+27 7981 96290
Please help
Taurai,
Are you talking about everything under the sun for user activity, or just email, or another service? You can find out most everything you need to know from the log files located in /var/log However, if that doesn't help you out, feel free to email me at tbeehler AT linuxmail DOT org and I'll gladly walk you through any help you may need.
You can use a simple "grep" command to look for specific things, such as all emails sent through your system by a user such as
grep -i "mercy123″ /var/log/mail.log
The above command will show you everything related to user "mercy123″ including incoming and outgoing email. The -i is to make sure that your search is case insensitive. The above command is a very basic way to look at activity, so if you want something a little more robust, let us know and we'll be happy to help you out.
Travis
Does creating a new user on a ubuntu server automatically give them an email address as well.
basically just out of curiosity if i was to add user jsmith to server running ubuntu 7.10 on domain underwear.com, would this also create jsmith@underwear.com?
any help would be appreciated.
Cheers
Daniel
(sigh) I just messed up adding a user on my Ubuntu server, thanks to this article. I followed the useradd example with the home directory, left out the -m by mistake, and now I don't know what the command actually did.
So, I do a "man useradd" and what do I see: "useradd is a low level utility for adding users. On Debian, administrators should usually use adduser(8) instead."
Sure enough, the article does mention adduser - almost in passing at the end.
Do your next reader a favor and simply take out all the useradd stuff. Is there anything in those examples that couldn't have been done with adduser? useradd is easy to get wrong like I did, and the man page itself says "don't use it." If you mention useradd at all, don't list any examples of its syntax, just put a little note at the end of the article saying that it's a low level command and not recommended for everyday use.
Thanks!
so there is no way to create a new user in a humane way? I'm not going to mess with my ubuntu installation, but at the same time I can't use it properly if I don't have a password-protected user for myself. is there a non-cryptic way of adding users?
Yes, there is an easy way to add a user. Just skip the entire first 2/3 of this article that describes the cryptic and *NOT RECOMMENDED* useradd command, and go right to the end where it mentions the adduser command. That's the one you want. It's very easy to use.
Hi Michael,
Leaving off -m just doesn't create the directories involved. you will need to do something like:
"sudo cp -r /etc/skel /home/[new_username]"
then something like
"sudo chown -r [new_username]:[new_username] /home/[new_username]"
Do you have a group for the user?