Man Usermod en anglais
USERMOD(8)                System Management Commands                USERMOD(8)



 

NAME


       usermod - modify a user account

 

SYNOPSIS


       usermod [options] LOGIN

 

DESCRIPTION






       The usermod command modifies the system account files to reflect the
       changes that are specified on the command line.

 

OPTIONS


       The options which apply to the usermod command are:

       -a, --append
           Add the user to the supplemental group(s). Use only with -G option.

       -c, --comment COMMENT
           The new value of the user's password file comment field. It is
           normally modified using the chfn(1) utility.

       -d, --home HOME_DIR
           The user's new login directory. If the -m option is given the
           contents of the current home directory will be moved to the new
           home directory, which is created if it does not already exist.

       -e, --expiredate EXPIRE_DATE
           The date on which the user account will be disabled. The date is
           specified in the format YYYY-MM-DD.

       -f, --inactive INACTIVE
           The number of days after a password expires until the account is
           permanently disabled. A value of 0 disables the account as soon as
           the password has expired, and a value of -1 disables the feature.
           The default value is -1.

       -g, --gid GROUP
           The group name or number of the user's new initial login group. The
           group name must exist. A group number must refer to an already
           existing group. The default group number is 1.

       -G, --groups GROUP1[,GROUP2,...[,GROUPN]]]
           A list of supplementary groups which the user is also a member of.
           Each group is separated from the next by a comma, with no
           intervening whitespace. The groups are subject to the same
           restrictions as the group given with the -g option. If the user is
           currently a member of a group which is not listed, the user will be
           removed from the group. This behaviour can be changed via the -a
           option, which appends the user to the current supplementary group
           list.

       -l, --login NEW_LOGIN
           The name of the user will be changed from LOGIN to NEW_LOGIN.
           Nothing else is changed. In particular, the user's home directory
           name should probably be changed manually to reflect the new login
           name.

       -L, --lock
           Lock a user's password. This puts a '!' in front of the encrypted
           password, effectively disabling the password. You can't use this
           option with -p or -U.

           Note: if you wish to lock the account (not only access with a
           password), you should also set the EXPIRE_DATE to 1.

       -o, --non-unique
           When used with the -u option, this option allows to change the user
           ID to a non-unique value.

       -p, --password PASSWORD
           The encrypted password, as returned by crypt(3).

       -s, --shell SHELL
           The name of the user's new login shell. Setting this field to blank
           causes the system to select the default login shell.

       -u, --uid UID
           The numerical value of the user's ID. This value must be unique,
           unless the -o option is used. The value must be non-negative.
           Values between 0 and 999 are typically reserved for system
           accounts. Any files which the user owns and which are located in
           the directory tree rooted at the user's home directory will have
           the file user ID changed automatically. Files outside of the user's
           home directory must be altered manually.

       -U, --unlock
           Unlock a user's password. This removes the '!' in front of the
           encrypted password. You can't use this option with -p or -L.

           Note: if you wish to unlock the account (not only access with a
           password), you should also set the EXPIRE_DATE (for example to
           99999, or to the EXPIRE value from /etc/default/useradd).

 

CAVEATS


       usermod will not allow you to change the name of a user who is logged
       in. You must make certain that the named user is not executing any
       processes when this command is being executed if the user's numerical
       user ID is being changed. You must change the owner of any crontab
       files manually. You must change the owner of any at jobs manually. You
       must make any changes involving NIS on the NIS server.

 

CONFIGURATION


       The following configuration variables in /etc/login.defs change the
       behavior of this tool:

       MAIL_DIR (string)
           The mail spool directory. This is needed to manipulate the mailbox
           when its corresponding user account is modified or deleted. If not
           specified, a compile-time default is used.

       MAIL_FILE (string)
           Defines the location of the users mail spool files relatively to
           their home directory.

       The MAIL_DIR and MAIL_FILE variables are used by useradd, usermod, and
       userdel to create, move, or delete the user's mail spool.

       MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP (number)
           Maximum members per group entry. When the maximum is reached, a new
           group entry (line) is started in /etc/group (with the same name,
           same password, and same GID).

           The default value is 0, meaning that there are no limits in the
           number of members in a group.

           This feature (split group) permits to limit the length of lines in
           the group file. This is useful to make sure that lines for NIS
           groups are not larger than 1024 characters.

           If you need to enforce such limit, you can use 25.

           Note: split groups may not be supported by all tools (even in the
           Shadow toolsuite. You should not use this variable unless you
           really need it.

 

FILES


       /etc/group
           Group account information.

       /etc/passwd
           User account information.

       /etc/shadow
           Secure user account information.

 

SEE ALSO


       chfn(1), chsh(1), passwd(1), crypt(3), gpasswd(8), groupadd(8),
       groupdel(8), groupmod(8), login.defs(5), useradd(8), userdel(8).



System Management Commands        12/06/2009                        USERMOD(8)