CoSc 3063-System and Network
Administration
Chapter 2: Host And User Manegment
Computer science 3rd Year, 1st Sem.
Fitsum Gizachew (BSc students_2014)
Topics to be covered
Lesson 2: User Management • Source
– How Linux user account work
• “Principles of Network and
– Managing user account
System Administration” (2nd
– How Linux group work Edition), John Wiley and Sons
– Manage ownership, permissions, Ltd, Mark Burgess, 2004.
and quotas • “Essential System
Administration”, 3rd Edition,
O’Reilly and Associates Inc.,
Ǽleen Frisch, 2003.
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Manage users account
Linux user accounts
How Linux user accounts work?
Where Linux user accounts are stored?
Creating and managing user accounts from the command line?
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How Linux User Accounts Work
Username
Password
By default, all user home directories are created and
maintained in the /home directory.
However, the root user’s home directory is /root
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Where Linux User Accounts Are Stored
Linux is a very flexible operating system. One of its
flexible features is the location of user accounts on the
system.
When you originally installed the system, there are
several options for where you wanted to store your user
accounts.
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Cont…
/etc/passwd: file contains the user account information
for your system.
/etc/shadow: file contains passwords for your user
accounts.
/etc/group: file contains your system’s groups.
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Creating and Managing User Accounts from the
Command Line
Using useradd: to Adding user account
Using passwd: to change password of user
account
Using usermod: to Modifying user account
Using userdel: to Deleting user account
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Using useradd
Used to add user into Linux system.
Syntax: useradd options username
Suppose I want to create user called student
useradd student
student account is created using the default parameters
You can also view these default values by entering useradd –D
at the shell prompt.
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You can also view these default values by
entering useradd –D at the shell prompt.
Option
–c Includes the user’s full name
–e Specifies the date when the user account will be disabled
–f Specifies the number of days after password expiration before the account is
disabled.
–g Specifies the user’s default group
–G Specifies additional groups that the user is to be made a member of.
–M Specifies that the user account be created without a home directory.
–m Specifies the user’s home directory.
–p Specifies the user’s password.
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- Using passwd
The passwd utility is used to change an existing user’s
password
You can find out this information using the –S option
with passwd
Syntax: passwd username
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Options
–l Locks the user’s account
–d Removes a user’s password.
–n Sets the minimum number of days required before a password can be
changed.
–x Sets the maximum number of days before a password must be changed.
–w Sets the number of days prior to password expiration when the user will be
warned of the pending expiration.
–i Sets the number of days to wait after a password has expired to disable the
account.
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- Using usermod
From time to time, you will need to modify an existing user account.
Syntax: usermod options username
Options
–c Edits the user’s full name.
–e Sets the date when the user account will be disabled. Format the date as yyyy-mm-dd.
–f Sets the number of days after password expiration before the account is disabled. Use a value of –1 to disable this
functionality.
–g Sets the user’s default group.
–G Specifies additional groups that the user is to be made a member of.
–l Changes the username.
–L Locks the user’s account. This option invalidates the user’s password
–m Sets the user’s home directory
–p Sets the user’s password.
–s Specifies the default shell for the user.
–u Sets the UID for the user.
12 Unlocks a user’s account that has been locked.
–U
- Using userdel
From time to time you will need to remove user account from Linux
system. this can be done from shell prompt using userdel utility.
Syntax:userdel username
example: userdel student
It’s important to note that, by default, userdel will not remove the
user’s home directory from the file system. If you do want to remove
the home directory when you delete the user, you need to use the –r
option in the command line.
For example, entering userdel –r student will remove the account
and delete her/his home directory.
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2. How Linux Groups Work
How Linux groups work
Managing groups from the command line
• Linux Groups
If your Linux system has been configured to use local
authentication, your groups are defined in the /etc/group
file. Each record is composed of the following four fields:
Group:Password:GID:Users
Group Specifies the name of the group.
Password Specifies the group password.
GID Specifies the group ID (GID) number of the group.
Users Lists the members of the group.
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Managing groups account from the
command line
Using groupadd
Using groupmod
Using groupdel
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- Using groupadd
Syntax:
groupadd options groupname
Options:
–g Specifies a GID for the new group.
–p Specifies a password for the group.
–r Specifies that the group being created is a system group.
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- Using groupmod
To modify a group, including adding users to the group
membership, you use the groupmod utility.
Syntax:
groupmod options group
Options:
–g Changes the group’s GID number.
–p Changes the group’s password.
–A Adds a user account to the group.
–R Removes a user account from the group.
If we wanted to add student to the group, we would enter
groupmod –A “student” at the shell prompt.
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- Using groupdel
Syntax: groupdel group_name
ex: groupdel student
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3. Manage ownership, permissions
Managing ownership
Managing permissions
Managing ownership
How ownership works
Managing ownership from the command line
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• How ownership works
Anytime a user creates a new file or directory,
his or her user account is assigned as that file or
directory’s “owner.”
By right-clicking on this file in the system’s
graphical user interface and selecting Properties
| Permissions, you can view who owns the file.
You can also view file ownership from the
command line using the ls –l command
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• Managing ownership from the
command line
You can specify a different user and/or group as the
owner of a given file or directory. To change the
user who owns a file, you must be logged in as root.
To change the group that owns a file, you must be
logged in as root or as the user who currently owns
the file.
Using chown
Using chgrp
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- Using chown
The chown utility can be used to change the user
or group that owns a file or directory.
Syntax chown user.group file or directory.
Ex: If I wanted to change the file’s owner to the
ncth1 user, I would enter
chown ncth1 /tmp/myfile.txt
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chown
If I wanted to change this to the users group, of
which users is a member, I would enter
chown .users /tmp/myfile.txt
Notice that I used a period (.) before the group
name to tell chown that the entity specified is a
group, not a user account.
Ex: chown student.users /tmp/myfile.txt
Note: You can use the –R option with chown to
change ownership on many files at once recursively.
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- Using chgrp
In addition to chown, you can also use chgrp to
change the group that owns a file or directory.
Syntax:
chgrp group file (or directory)
For example:
chgrp student /tmp/newfile.txt.
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Managing permissions
How permissions work
Managing permissions from the command line
Working with default permissions
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Access to files in Linux is based on permissions
Each user and group has different permissions regarding access
to files
Available permissions
read, write, execute, and no permission
Three types of users in Linux
User: username of the person who owns the file
Group: set of users
Other: user who isn't the owner of the file and doesn't belong
in the same group the file does
Everyone else other than user and group
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- How permissions work
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- Managing Permissions from the Command
Line with chmod
chmod entity=permissions filename
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Thank you
?
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