ADDUSER(8)	    UNIX Programmer's Manual	       ADDUSER(8)



NAME
     adduser - procedure for adding new users

DESCRIPTION
     A new user must choose a login name, which must not already
     appear in /_e_t_c/_p_a_s_s_w_dor /_e_t_c/_a_l_i_a_s_e_s.  It must also not
     begin with the hyphen (``-'') character.  It is strongly
     recommended that it be all lower-case, and not contain the
     dot (``.'') character, as that tends to confuse mailers.  An
     account can be added by editing a line into the passwd file;
     this must be done with the password file locked e.g. by
     using _c_h_p_a_s_s(1) or _v_i_p_w(8).

     A new user is given a group and user id.  Login's and user
     id's should be unique across the system, and often across a
     group of systems, since they are used to control file
     access.  Typically, users working on similar projects will
     be put in the same groups.  At the University of California,
     Berkeley, we have groups for system staff, faculty, graduate
     students, and special groups for large projects.

     A skeletal account for a new user "ernie" might look like:

	  ernie::25:30::0:0:Ernie Kovacs,508 Evans
	  Hall,x7925,642-8202:/a/users/ernie:/bin/csh

     For a description of each of these fields, see _p_a_s_s_w_d(5).

     It is useful to give new users some help in getting started,
     supplying them with a few skeletal files such as ._p_r_o_f_i_l_e if
     they use "/bin/sh", or ._c_s_h_r_c and ._l_o_g_i_n if they use
     "/bin/csh".  The directory "/usr/skel" contains skeletal
     definitions of such files.  New users should be given copies
     of these files which, for instance, use _t_s_e_t(1) automati-
     cally at each login.

FILES
     /etc/master.passwd  user database
     /usr/skel		 skeletal login directory

SEE ALSO
     chpass(1), finger(1), passwd(1), aliases(5), passwd(5),
     mkpasswd(8), vipw(8)

BUGS
     User information should (and eventually will) be stored
     elsewhere.








Printed 11/26/99	October 23, 1996			1