Add User Account.

   In order to use Linux system you must have user account on the system, there is several different way to add a user account on the system.  This article provide step by step procedure to add user account to Linux Fedora Core system using 'useradd' the text base command line, and the graphical Linux Fedora program 'system-config-users' that can be use to adding the user account. The 'system-config-users' is the graphical user manager tool that can be quite useful on managing user on your Linux system.

Contents:

Add user using graphical 'system-config-user' tool.

To add new user in to the system using text base command.

Add user with supplementary GROUP.

Create user home directory to other location.

Add user using graphical 'system-config-user' tool.

   There is simple and most easier way to create user in Fedora Core operating system is using 'User Manager',  graphical tool  to manage user in Fedora Core system.  The example below show the step to create new user using the 'User Manager' tool.

1. Log in as root user and then go to System menu button (on the Panel) -> Administration -> and click on Users and Groups, or you can open the x-terminal (x-term/GNOME terminal) and type in 'system-config-users' at the shell prompt to open the graphical User Manager window:

2.  The User Manager interface display the available user on the system with the user information.

3.  To add a new user to the system, click the Add User button, the window of Create New User show in figure below will appear.  Type in the User Name, Full Name and Password in appropriate fields, then retype the password in the Confirm Password field.  Make sure the password length must be at least six characters long.

Login Shell: - The default value of login shell is /bin/bash,  change the value by clicking the drop down button.

Home Directory: - The default value of user home directory is in /home/username, you can change the path of user home directory or un-tick Create Home Directory check box if you choose not to create the user home directory.  Please note that the default configuration files for user home directory will be copied from /etc/skel to the user home directory.

Private group for the user: - By default whenever you create new user, a unique group with the same name as a user is created, if you wish not to create this group un-tick the Create a private group for the user check box.

Specify user ID manually: - Fedora core reserve the IDs below 500 for the system users.  The next available ID is starting from number 500 will be assign for new user and to manually assign the ID for new user tick the Specify user ID manually check box.

4.  Then click OK button to create the user.

To add new user in to the system using text base command.

   The 'useradd' and 'adduser' command can be use to create new user account in Linux Fedora Core system.  Please note that the 'adduser' command is a sybolic link to 'useradd' command so that these two command actually is the same command that link together.

Creating user account using 'useradd' command:

1. Log in on the system using root account.

2. Open x-terminal and type in:

[root@localhost ~]# useradd -c "Richard William" william

[root@localhost ~]#

Note: The example above use the useradd command to add new user named "Richard William" with the logon name william.

or the simples way:

[root@localhost ~]# useradd christopher

[root@localhost ~]#

Note: The command above adding new user account to the system with the login name christopher.

3. In order to use these newly crated user account, you need to create password for these user. 

[root@localhost ~]# passwd william

Changing password for user william.

New UNIX password:

Retype new UNIX password:

passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.

[root@localhost ~]#

[root@localhost ~]# passwd christopher

Changing password for user christopher.

New UNIX password:

Retype new UNIX password:

passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.

[root@localhost ~]#

4.  To verify the newly created user account you can use the 'finger' command and try to login using these newly created user account.

The user account for 'william':

[root@localhost ~]# finger william

Login: william Name: Richard William

Directory: /home/william Shell: /bin/bash

Never logged in.

No mail.

No Plan.

[root@localhost ~]#

The user account for 'christopher':

[root@localhost ~]# finger christopher

Login: christopher Name: (null)

Directory: /home/christopher Shell: /bin/bash

Never logged in.

No mail.

No Plan.

[root@localhost ~]#

Add user with supplementary GROUP.

   When we add user, the user have their own initial group and supplementary GROUP.  The step by step procedure below show how to add user account and specify the supplementary GROUP the the user belong to.

1.  The useadd command below with the option '-G' is use to add the user to supplementary GROUP root, bin, daemon, sys, adm, disk and wheel.

[root@localhost ~]# useradd -c "Richard William" -G root,bin,daemon,sys,adm,disk,wheel william

[root@localhost ~]#

2. Verify user groups.

[root@localhost ~]# groups william

william : william root bin daemon sys adm disk wheel

[root@localhost ~]#

The output from command above show that the user william initial group is 'william' and the user william belong to the supplementary GROUP 'root, bin, daemon, sys, adm, disk and wheel'.

3. Dont forget to create password for user ( to make sure that user can login)

[root@localhost ~]# passwd william

Changing password for user william.

New UNIX password:

Retype new UNIX password:

passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.

[root@localhost ~]#

4. Login as user william and check the user groups.

[william@localhost ~]$ whoami

william

[william@localhost ~]$ id

uid=505(william) gid=505(william) groups=0(root),1(bin),2(daemon),3(sys),4(adm),6(disk),10(wheel),505(william)

[william@localhost ~]$

Create user home directory to other location.

   The default location of users home directory in the Fedora core system is under /home .  The example below show example of creating user and locate their home directory in other location on the system. 

1. Change directory to /tmp.

[root@fedora ~]# cd /tmp/

[root@fedora tmp]#

2. Verify.

[root@fedora tmp]# pwd

/tmp

[root@fedora tmp]#

3. Add user and put the user home directory in /tmp directory.

[root@fedora tmp]# useradd -d /tmp/johnny johnny

[root@fedora tmp]#

4. Verify the existance of user home directory.

[root@fedora tmp]# ls

johnny

[root@fedora tmp]#

5.  Delete the user.

[root@fedora tmp]# userdel -r johnny

[root@fedora tmp]#

6. Verify.

[root@fedora tmp]# ls

[root@fedora tmp]#

Related article:

     Create Linux root user account

Keywords: system-config-user, add user, adding user, adduser, user manager, create new user, new user, fedora core user, useradd, user add, adding new user, new user account, create user account.