Anything related with user accounts and user management on Unix-like systems.
19
votes
2answers
3k views
Is it possible to rename a Unix user account?
I installed an ubuntu on a computer that is now used by somebody else. I renamed the account with her name, but it only changes the fullname, not the user name, which is still displayed in the top ...
2
votes
2answers
50 views
Creating a User-less Distro
One of the popular programs I use is GParted, and it has its own custom distro, that boots straight to the desktop, and starts the program. I couldn't find any information on creating such a distro. I ...
4
votes
2answers
108 views
Deleting users with nologin shell
On a security audit performed on our production Linux servers , we were asked to remove nobody user if no application are using it.
I checked and could see that there are no files owned by 'nobody' ...
2
votes
2answers
33 views
CentOS can't remove user from group
Asked and answered many times, but I can't get it working!!!
(On CentOS) I have the user userA and I want to remove it from group sftponly.
#groups userA
userA : sftponly
#id -Gn userA
sftponly
...
2
votes
2answers
566 views
Limited SSH user on Ubuntu 12
I'm running Minecraft on a server. How can I give my friend SSH access just to the minecraft folder (a root folder), the screen command, and some ports?
1
vote
1answer
110 views
security concern around adding cron user to web application group
I have a permissions issue on my CentOS 5.6 machine with regards to the cron user.
On my test/staging environment my cron user (picco-cron) is a member of one group - picco-cron, as below:
...
4
votes
2answers
11k views
How to add a ssh user who only has permissions to access specific folder?
How to add an ssh user who only has permissions to access specific folder?
useradd -d /var/www/xyz.com.tr/musteri -s /bin/bash -g sshd musteri
I created a user called musteri. I set its home ...
2
votes
3answers
425 views
Another account with same uid as root gets prompted to set new password for root, not itself
After upgrading the os from 5300-06 to 5300-11, this weird behaviour happened.
My system had another unix account, let's call it "abc", purposely configured its uid to 0 for working as a root with ...
3
votes
2answers
43 views
Understanding getlogin()
I think the previous iteration of this question was a little bit like a carpet bomb of questions, so that may have turned people off to it (to the point of almost being flagged for removal) so I'll ...
10
votes
4answers
2k views
Add a user to the system *only if it doesn't exist*
I've been running the useradd {user} command to add users to my system, though I plan on running this in an automated environment, and it might end up being run again, even though the user already ...
2
votes
3answers
49 views
I have installed Linux distribution. Do I need to set root account or the user account is enough?
I have these credentials that I am using for logging in with my Linux distribution (Ubuntu 13.04) when starting the computer:
james
myawesomepassword123
I type the password on the login screen and ...
-1
votes
3answers
81 views
Get environment variable of other user [closed]
Is there a way I can see the environment variable of an other user? I want to do that as root, so permissions won't be a problem I guess.
For the user himself, I use echo $PATH or set | grep PATH ...
-3
votes
2answers
62 views
How to see Current users on the system
I need a script to identify only and only users ( current users ) on the system and what actions they are performing.
I use w , but don't show user's actions that are currently performing ... and PS ...
5
votes
2answers
57 views
Disk usage summary per user
Is there a way to get the disk usage per user under a given path? du doesn't seem to have an option to aggregate disk usage per user, and df only seems to report how much disk is left on the drive.
...
2
votes
2answers
45 views
Linux multi-user system: Each user's home partition on its own Hard Drive
I've got a pogoplug running Arch Linux that I'm using for a NAS with rsync backing up my data over SSH. Right now, I'm the only one using it, but I'd like to add my roommate as well. She has her own ...
3
votes
2answers
130 views
What is the proper solution to a web server trying to write to a directory?
So, I have a box with a "deploy" user. This deploy user owns a code repository and wordpress is running on this box...
When wordpress attempts to do something like upload a plugin, it is using the ...
4
votes
2answers
2k views
How do I give all the permissions to a file for a single user that's not me?
When I want to grant access to another user to my file, I use chmod 777 file, but if I want to be sure I'm granting permission just for that user, how can I do it?
-- update
The file is owned by ...
6
votes
2answers
224 views
How do I add network or user source connection data to history entries?
I would like to modify the history settings for all users on the systems that I manage.
I would like it to contain the information from the connecting terminal like from who
sysadmin:/ # who
sysadmin ...
2
votes
4answers
2k views
NIS: How to allow access to both local and remote users' home directories?
We have a NIS server with shared users' home directories in '/home'.
We're used to mounting the server's '/home' using '/home' as the mount point on each NIS client.
However, if we do this with a ...
1
vote
4answers
72 views
What type of permissions should a user's home directory and files have?
I'm working with a fresh install of Ubuntu 12.04 and I've just added a new user:
useradd -m testuser
I thought that the -m flag to create a home directory for users was pretty standard, but now ...
5
votes
2answers
528 views
How to mass change password attributes in AIX uname -rv=3 5 for all users but root
I want to do a mass change on all users but root in AIX for the following "password attributes":
Weeks before password reuse: 15
Password min length: 6
Can it be done, or do I need to do them one ...
1
vote
1answer
41 views
Username conflicts on a central printer queue
We have just switched to a centralized print queue. The printer is setup with
lpadmin -p SPScolour -E -D "Sustainable Print Colour" -v lpd://xxx.yyy.com/colour
The IT people are saying my local ...
3
votes
1answer
116 views
Trouble with dbus and systemd/user
I have systemd set up so that using systemctl start user@me will start my user services as I expect, but my dbus one just won't go (which I need for PulseAudio).
Is there some way I can check dbus or ...
0
votes
1answer
70 views
Should I use useradd or adduser?
I am trying to add a new user to the system. I am confused though which command to run: useradd or adduser?
2
votes
4answers
72 views
Open program as root, close root session but still program is running
When I run my backup script, first I switch to root, mount a truecrypt partition and then run the script.
I've noticed that after run truecrypt as root, I can exit the root session and truecrypt ...
4
votes
1answer
155 views
Which home directory should 'nobody' have?
I'm messing around with Tiger security audits on my CentOS box, ensuring the server is fit for being online, well as close as it can get anyway.
I noticed a warning about the user nobody having / as ...
3
votes
1answer
119 views
User systemd PulseAudio service
Not much else to this question: I would like to know what I need to create a PulseAudio systemd service to be run with systemd --user.
I've tried a few different things, including various user ...
2
votes
1answer
3k views
Changing user and group ID system wide (including file system attributes)?
(this question possibly related to Linux: simulating/masking user ownership upon mount of 'external' partitions? - Stack Overflow)
I typically use Ubuntu (currently 11.04) as my desktop OS; let's say ...
2
votes
1answer
52 views
Unable to preserve ownership in a copy but able with a move?
I have noticed that I am unable to preserve ownership if I rsync -o files. However, I am when I move them. This is all without admin privileges. What is the rationale of this? Several threads e.g. ...
2
votes
1answer
62 views
how to keep file owner same for newly created files
This question is regarding samba file access.
I have created a folder A, and under folder A created two folders B and C. And also created three users A, B and C.
User A has access to all three ...
2
votes
1answer
43 views
Adding a user to a group by default
I have a group that all users on the system share. The group name is common and it is to allow for a universal fileshare for everyone on the machine. How would I make it so that all new users are ...
1
vote
2answers
60 views
Changing username but not home directory
Is it a bad idea to do usermod -l login-name old-name to change my username while leaving my home directory name intact?
A few years ago my university changed my username, but since it didn't affect ...
-1
votes
4answers
79 views
How to list all daemon users?
A typical Linux system has not only accounts for the actual user(s) of the system, but also various system accounts.
Is there any file like /etc/passwd for daemons?
I heard that it is possible to ...
1
vote
1answer
44 views
How to retrieve information about locked accounts
Is it possible to retrieve info regarding to locked unix accouts?
I am interested in seeing information about what date and time the lockout happend and from what hostname (pc name). I would like to ...
1
vote
1answer
36 views
How to open a program as another user inside a logged display?
I'm trying to open netbeans as a different user, but isn't working.
I'm running a Kubuntu 12.04 LTS with KDE.
And I tried the following:
Open a terminal, type su - myotheruser, type the myotheruser ...
6
votes
9answers
448 views
What is/are the standard CLI program(s) to manage users and groups?
As the title says, I'm basically asking about user management from the command line (e.g. on a system where there are no graphical tools available). In the past I've used several different programs to ...
16
votes
10answers
930 views
How to create strong passwords in Linux?
I wonder how I can create strong passwords on Linux (for both normal and admin users) and if there are specific programs to do that.
27
votes
3answers
25k views
How do I remove a user from a group?
Which command should I use to remove a user from a group in Debian?
When adding a user to a group, it can be done with:
usermod -a -G group user
However, I could not find a similar command ...
16
votes
5answers
7k views
How do you create a user with no password?
In os X it's possible to have users without passwords. If you inspect them with dscl their password show up as *. This is used for system users such as users for databases like mysql, pgsql etc. ...
1
vote
1answer
55 views
Which user owns X display?
How to determine, as root, which user owns X display :0? (on a Fedora 18 system with defaults)
2
votes
1answer
96 views
bash script - supervisor program
I have to write a shell-script that have to do the following tasks:
-in every 5 seconds it saves:
-how many users are using joe and/or vi;
-if ...
2
votes
6answers
141 views
sort ls output by users
On Linux, is there a way to sort ls output by users? What I try to achieve is something like this:
user_a file1
user_a file2
user_b another_file
user_c this_file
user_c ...
0
votes
3answers
5k views
How can I list all user names on Solaris 10?
I forgot a user that I created on solaris 10, so now I would like to list all user names on my server.
Is it possible (I am root user)? What command I should use if possible?
Somewhere on the net ...
3
votes
2answers
120 views
How to grant non-root user access to device files
I have device file that appears in /dev when a specific board is plugged in. The read and write operations to it work just fine, but in order to open the device file the program needs to be executed ...
1
vote
2answers
127 views
FreeBSD telnet does not take root login
I have just installed FreeBSD 8.1 as a VMWare host and can establish ipv4 connectivity to the instance and telnet through the virtual console. I have also uncommented the /etc/inetd.conf lines
telnet ...
8
votes
2answers
13k views
How can I change a user's default group in Linux?
Being new to Linux administration, I'm a little confused about the following commands:
useradd
usermod
groupadd
groupmod
I've just finished reading the user administration book in the Linux/Unix ...
3
votes
2answers
71 views
Fully seperate two accounts without installing seperate operating systems?
Our class is finally installing Mint Linux on our machines. The problem is our teacher is scared that we'll play war games against the two classes that use the computers. His solution is to install ...
1
vote
2answers
76 views
How to switch back and forth between users quickly on a single terminal?
I'd like to switch to another user without logging out the first user, then log in as a third user without logging out the other two, and so on, then switch between all users quickly. I'd like to ...
3
votes
2answers
115 views
How to set permissions in /sys/ permanent?
I'm starting X as a user and need to set my keyboard brightness in /sys/class/leds/asus\:\:kbd_backlight/brightness. The /sys/ directory gets recreated after reboot, so the permissions will reset too. ...
3
votes
4answers
5k views
Can a linux user change their password without knowing the current password?
I'm setting up a few ubuntu boxes, and using opscode's chef as a configuration tool. It would be fairly easy to install public keys for each user on each of these servers, and disable password ...
