How to create a user in Linux

Creating a user in Linux Terminal

The useradd command will create the user and usermod can modify user properties such as groups the user is part of.

useradd [options] username

Example: 

sudo useradd dragos

Using default options to create username dragos.

Also created the user home directory: /home/dragos

A group is also created for the user with the same name. This can be changed if needed by specifying the -g option.

sudo useradd -g dragosgroupname dragos

After the user is created use the passwd command to create a password for that user.

The passwd command adds entries in the file:

/etc/passwd

sudo passwd dragos

type password twice when prompted and it’s done. User is ready to logon.

If the user should be able to run suo commands – run commands with elevated privileges – ROOT.

You should be careful with this. Only give this to yourself or only users you trust.

They can rm / -rf (Don’t try this – delete everythong) your server so there’s that.

To allow a user to sudo it needs to be added to the wheel group. Add an entry in the file: /etc/group

sudo usermod -aG wheel temptest

Now this user is able to run sudo commands.

The user can be added to any custom group you might have.

sudo usermod -aG devs,users,bloggers temptest

The user can change the password by logging in and typring in Terminal or SSH session.

passwd dragos 

They can only change their own password.

the useradd -D or defaults shows you the default values used when creating a new user in Linux.

useradd -D 

You can customize each one by looking at the options allowed,

useradd -h