🐧 User & Group Management
Hands-On Linux Practice Tutorial
Topics Covered:
1. User Management
2. Group Management
3. Access Management
4. File Permissions
5. Root Privileges
6. File Management
🧭 Prerequisites:
Ubuntu system (or any Debian-based Linux)
Access to terminal
Basic understanding of shell commands
📚 Time Breakdown
Section Topic Time
1 Intro + User Management 15 min
2 Group Management 15 min
3 Access and File Permissions 20 min
4 Root Privileges and sudo 15 min
5 File and Directory Management 20 min
6 Wrap-up Challenge 5 min
1. User Management (15 minutes)
🔹 Check current user:
whoami
🔹 List system users:
cut -d: -f1 /etc/passwd
🔹 Create a new user:
sudo adduser alice
🔹 Switch to the user:
su - alice
Press Ctrl+D or type exit to return.
🔹 Delete a user:
sudo deluser alice
📘 Chapter 5 — "Managing Users and Groups"
✅ Exercise 1:
Create a user named testuser
Set a password for the user
Switch to the user and confirm you’re logged in as testuser
👥 2. Group Management (15 minutes)
🔹 View current groups:
groups
🔹 Create a group:
sudo addgroup developers
🔹 Add user to a group:
sudo usermod -aG developers testuser
🔹 Verify group membership:
groups testuser
🔹 Remove user from a group:
sudo gpasswd -d testuser developers
📘 Chapter 5 — "Managing Users and Groups"
✅ Exercise 2:
Create a group called students
Add testuser to the group
Verify using the groups command
🔐 3. Access Management & File Permissions
(20 minutes)
🔹 Check permissions:
ls -l
Example output:
-rw-r--r-- 1 alice alice 4096 Apr 30 12:00 file.txt
Breakdown of permissions:
[owner][group][others]
rw- r-- r--
🔹 Change file permissions:
chmod u+x script.sh # Add execute for owner
chmod g-w file.txt # Remove write from group
chmod o+r file.txt # Add read for others
🔹 Numeric permissions:
chmod 755 script.sh # rwxr-xr-x
chmod 644 file.txt # rw-r--r--
🔹 Change ownership:
sudo chown testuser file.txt
sudo chown testuser:developers file.txt
📘 Chapter 6 — "File System Permissions and Ownership"
✅ Exercise 3:
Create a file called hello.txt
Change its permissions so only the owner can read/write
Make sure others can’t access it
: 4. Root Privileges and sudo (15 minutes)
🔹 Check if you’re root:
whoami
🔹 Use sudo to run admin commands:
sudo apt update
🔹 Run a shell as root:
sudo -i
🔹 Add a user to the sudo group:
sudo usermod -aG sudo testuser
📘 Chapter 8 — “Root and Sudo”
✅ Exercise 4:
Try running apt update as a normal user
Add yourself to the sudo group (if needed)
Run the command again using sudo
📁 5. File and Directory Management (20
minutes)
🔹 Create files and directories:
mkdir myfolder
touch myfolder/notes.txt
🔹 Move and rename files:
mv myfolder/notes.txt myfolder/tasks.txt
🔹 Copy files:
cp myfolder/tasks.txt myfolder/tasks_backup.txt
🔹 Delete files and directories:
rm myfolder/tasks_backup.txt
rm -r myfolder
🔹 View contents:
ls -l myfolder/
cat myfolder/tasks.txt
📘 Chapter 4 — “Working with Files and Directories”
✅ Exercise 5:
Create a directory project
Inside it, create a file readme.txt
Write your name into the file using echo
Rename the file to intro.txt
Delete the file and directory
🚀 6. Wrap-Up Challenge (5 minutes)
Combine everything you’ve learned in a mini project:
✅ Challenge:
1. Create a user projectuser
2. Create a group projectteam and add projectuser to it
3. As root, create a folder /opt/project, assign ownership to
projectuser:projectteam
4. Set permissions so only the group can write to it, others can only
read
5. Switch to projectuser and create a file inside /opt/project
🧠 Summary Table
Topic Key Command
Create user sudo adduser username
Delete user sudo deluser username
Create group sudo addgroup groupname
sudo usermod -aG groupname
Add user to group
username
View permissions ls -l
Change permissions chmod, chown
File operations cp, mv, rm, touch, mkdir
Root access sudo, sudo -i
🧾 Linux User & Access
Management Cheat Sheet
👤 User Management
Action Command
Create user sudo adduser <username>
Delete user sudo deluser <username>
Switch user su - <username>
View all users cut -d: -f1 /etc/passwd
Set/change password sudo passwd <username>
👥 Group Management
Action Command
Create group sudo addgroup <groupname>
Delete group sudo delgroup <groupname>
sudo usermod -aG <groupname>
Add user to group
<username>
Remove user from sudo gpasswd -d <username>
group <groupname>
List groups for user groups <username>
🔐 File Permissions
Action Command
View permissions ls -l
Change permissions (symbolic) chmod u+x <file>
Change permissions (numeric) chmod 755 <file>
sudo chown
Change ownership
<user>:<group> <file>
Permission Breakdown (e.g. -rwxr-xr--):
u = user (owner)
g = group
o = others
r = read, w = write, x = execute
Numeric Equivalents:
Permission Number
r (read) 4
w (write) 2
x (execute) 1
rw- 6
r-x 5
rwx 7
: Root & sudo
Action Command
Run as root sudo <command>
Become root sudo -i
Add user to sudo usermod -aG sudo
sudoers <username>
📁 File & Directory Management
Action Command
Create directory mkdir <dir>
Create file touch <file>
Copy file cp <source> <dest>
Move/rename file mv <source> <dest>
Delete file rm <file>
Delete directory rm -r <dir>
View file contents cat <file>
🧪 Bonus Commands
Purpose Command
Show current user whoami
Display current directory pwd
Search text in file grep "<text>" <file>
List all users in group getent group <groupname>
