Add a new user steps for Oracle Linux 5

Question

It's been over 10 years since I last used RedHat (which I believe that Oracle Linux came from). So I cannot remember the steps to create a new user, add them to the appropriate groups, set up their home environment, etc.

I can find individual commands for Oracle Linux, but no work flow on how to go about the process (as in what steps an admin must follow to do the complete process of adding a new user to the Oracle Linux environment).

Could someone provide the recommended steps when a new user is required for a Oracle Linux system please?

Edit

I should note that I'm dealing with a headless system so I need to know how to do this from the command line. Looking at the resources on the oracle site keeps showing GUI ways to do things intermingled with the CLI. For example, it states the command of how to create a user at the command line, but doesn't show how to set the user name via the command line. Instead it shows the GUI User Manager tool.

Answer 1

You can add users to your Oracle Linux system using the useradd command as root. If you need to add a group as well, use the groupadd command. You can see extended help for both commands by typing man useradd and man groupadd at your terminal prompt.

Here's an Article from Oracle explaining exactly how to manage users on Oracle Linux.

An example:

useradd jimmy

After adding the user, assuming it's for an actual person and not a system service, you likely want to set a password:

passwd jimmy

The user details are visible in the "/etc/passwd" file. If no UID is specified, the next largest UID is assigned. A new group with a group name matching the user name is also created. By default, the users home directory is created under the "/home" directory and the shell is "/bin/bash".

Answer 2

Since Oracle Linux is very similar to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, you may find useful the section "User and Group Management Tools" of RHEL 5 Deployment Guide available here.