How to Create Users in Linux (useradd Command)

Linux is a multi-user system which means that more than one person can interact with the same system at the same time. As a system administrator, you have the responsibility to manage the system’s users and groups by creating and removing users and assign them to different groups.

In Linux, you can create a user account and assign the user to different groups using the useradd command. useradd is a low-level utility, Debian and Ubuntu users will more likely use the friendlier adduser command instead.

In this article, we will talk about how to use the useradd command and explore its options.

useradd Command #

The general syntax for the useradd command is as follows:

useradd [OPTIONS] USERNAME

To be able to use the useradd command and create new users you need to be logged in as root or a user with sudo access.

When invoked, useradd creates a new user account using the options specified on the command line plus the default values specified in the /etc/default/useradd file.

The variables defined in this file differs from distribution to distribution which causes the useradd command to produce different results on different systems.

The command also reads the content of the /etc/login.defs file. This file contains configuration for the shadow password suite such as password expiration policy, ranges of user IDs used when creating system and regular users and more.

How to Create a New User in Linux #

To create a new user account type useradd followed by the username.

For example to create a new user named username you would run:

sudo useradd username

The command adds an entry to the /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/group and /etc/gshadow files.

To be able to log in as the newly created user, you need to set the user password. To do that run the passwd command followed by the username:

sudo passwd username

You will be prompted to enter and confirm the password. Make sure you use a strong password.

Changing password for user username.
New password:
Retype new password:
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.

How to Add a New User and Create Home Directory #

In most Linux distros, when creating a new user account with the useradd command the user home directory is not created.

Use the -m (--create-home) option to create the user home directory as /home/username:

sudo useradd -m username

The command above creates the new user’s home directory and copies files from /etc/skel directory to the user’s home directory. If you list the files in the /home/username directory, you will see the initialization files:

ls -la /home/username/

drwxr-xr-x 2 username username 4096 Dec 11 11:23 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 root     root     4096 Dec 11 11:23 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 username username  220 Apr  4  2018 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r-- 1 username username 3771 Apr  4  2018 .bashrc
-rw-r--r-- 1 username username  807 Apr  4  2018 .profile

Within the home directory, the user can write, edit and delete files and directories.

Creating a User with Specific Home Directory #

If you want to create the user’s home directory in other location then the default /home directory use the d (--home) option.

For example, to create a new user named username with a home directory of /opt/username you’ll need to run the following command:

sudo useradd -m -d /opt/username username

Creating a User with Specific User ID #

In Linux and Unix-like operating systems, users are identified by unique UID and username.

User identifier (UID) is a unique positive integer assigned by the Linux system to each user. The UID along with other access control policies is used to determine the types of actions a user can perform on system resources.

By default when a new user is created the system assigns the next available UID from the range of user IDs specified in the login.defs file.

Use the -u (--uid) option to create a user with a specific UID. For example to create a new user named username with UID of 1500 you would type:

sudo useradd -u 1500 username

You can verify the user’s UID, using the id command:

id -u username

1500

Creating a User with Specific Group ID #

Linux groups are organization units which are used to organize and administer user accounts in Linux. The main purpose of groups is to define a set of privileges such as reading, writing, or executing permission for a given resource that can be shared among the users within the group.

When creating a new user the default behavior of the useradd command is to create a group with the same name as the username, and same GID as UID.

Use the -g (--gid) option to create a user with a specific initial login group. You can specify either the group name or the GID number. The group name or GID must already exist.

For example to create a new user named username and set the login group to users type:

sudo useradd -g users username

To verify the user’s GID, use the id command:

id -gn username

users

Creating a User and Assign Multiple Groups #

There are two types of groups in Linux operating systems Primary group and Secondary or supplementary group. Each user can belong to exactly one primary group and zero or more secondary groups.

The -G (--groups) option allows you to specify a list of supplementary groups which the user will be a member of.

The following command will create a new user named username with primary group users and secondary groups wheel and docker.

sudo useradd -g users -G wheel,developers username

You can check the user groups by typing

id username

uid=1002(username) gid=100(users) groups=100(users),10(wheel),993(docker)

Creating a User with Specific Login Shell #

By default, the new user’s login shell is set to the one specified in the /etc/default/useradd file. In some Linux distributions such as Ubuntu 18.04 the default shell is set to /bin/sh while in others it is set to /bin/bash.

The -s (--shell) option allows you to specify the new user’s login shell.

For example to create a new user named username with /usr/bin/zsh as a login shell type:

sudo useradd -s /usr/bin/zsh username

Check the user entry in the /etc/passwd file to verify the user’s login shell:

grep username /etc/passwd

username:x :1001:1001::/home/username:/usr/bin/zsh

The -c (--comment) option allows you to add a short description for the new user. Typically the user’s full name or the contact information are added as a comment.

In the following example we are creating a new user named username with text string Test User Account as a comment:

sudo useradd -c "Test User Account" username

The comment is saved in /etc/passwd file:

grep username /etc/passwd

username:x :1001:1001:Test User Account:/home/username:/bin/sh

The comment field is also known as GECOS.

Creating a User with an Expiry Date #

The -e (--expiredate) option allows you to define a time at which the new user accounts will expire. This option is useful for creating temporary accounts. The date must be specified using the YYYY-MM-DD format.

For example to create a new user account named username with expiry time set to January 22 2019 you would run:

sudo useradd -e 2019-01-22 username

You can use the chage command to verify the user account expiry date:

sudo chage -l username

The output will look something like this:

Last password change					: Dec 11, 2018
Password expires					: never
Password inactive					: never
Account expires						: Jan 22, 2019
Minimum number of days between password change		: 0
Maximum number of days between password change		: 99999
Number of days of warning before password expires	: 7

Creating a System User #

There is no real technical difference between the system and regular (normal) users. Typically system users are created when installing the OS and new packages.

In some situations, you may need to create a system user that will be used by some application.

Use the -r (--system) option to create a system user account. For example, to create a new system user named username you would run:

sudo useradd -r username

System users are created with no expiry date. Their UIDs are chosen from the range of system user IDs specified in the login.defs file which is different than the range used for normal users.

Changing the Default useradd Values #

The default useradd options can be viewed and changed using the -D, --defaults option or by manually editing the values in the /etc/default/useradd file.

To view the current default options type:

useradd -D

The output will look something like this:

GROUP=100
HOME=/home
INACTIVE=-1
EXPIRE=
SHELL=/bin/sh
SKEL=/etc/skel
CREATE_MAIL_SPOOL=no

Let’s say you want to change the default login shell from /bin/sh to /bin/bash. To do that specify the new shell as shown below:

sudo useradd -D -s /bin/bash

You can verify that the default shell value is changed by running the following command:

sudo useradd -D | grep -i shell

SHELL=/bin/bash

Conclusion #

In this tutorial, we have shown you how to create new user accounts using the useradd command. The same instructions apply for any Linux distribution, including Ubuntu, CentOS, RHEL, Debian, Fedora and Arch Linux.

Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions.