Why is the home directory not created when I create a new user?

Question

I created a new user (testuser) using the useradd command on an Ubuntu server Virtual machine. I would like to create a home directory for the user and also give them root provileges.

However, when I login as the new user, it complains that there is no home directory. What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Finally I found how to do this myself:

   useradd -m -d /home/testuser/ -s /bin/bash -G sudo testuser

-m creates the home directory if it does not exist.
-d overrides the default home directory location. -s sets the login shell for the user.
-G expects a comma-separated list of groups that the user should belong to.

See man useradd for details.

Answer 2

Editor's note: This answer is technically correct to the question as asked, but discussion in the comments clarified that the OP was trying to use useradd in a script rather than directly as a shell command, and adduser is less suited for that context.

When creating a user interactively, it's generally recommended to use adduser rather than useradd.

useradd is a low level utility for adding users. On Debian,
administrators should usually use adduser(8) instead.

adduser is a friendlier frontend to useradd and will do things like create user directories by default. When you run it with only a username as an argument, you will be prompted to provide additional information such as the password:

$ sudo adduser testuser
Adding user `testuser' ...
Adding new group `testuser' (1002) ...
Adding new user `testuser' (1002) with group `testuser' ...
Creating home directory `/home/testuser' ...
Copying files from `/etc/skel' ...
Enter new UNIX password: 
Retype new UNIX password: 
passwd: password updated successfully
Changing the user information for testuser
Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default
    Full Name []: 
    Room Number []: 
    Work Phone []: 
    Home Phone []: 
    Other []: 
Is the information correct? [Y/n] 

In general, it's recommended to use use adduser instead of useradd since this will also set up the required groups automatically. As explained in man adduser:

adduser and addgroup add users and groups to the system according to command line options and configuration information in /etc/adduser.conf. They are friendlier front ends to the low level tools like useradd, groupadd and usermod programs, by default choosing Debian policy conformant UID and GID values, creating a home directory with skeletal configuration, running a custom script, and other features.

Answer 3

useradd -m LOGIN

creates the user's home directory

Answer 4

It happened to me when I used the command:

sudo useradd -d /home/ssd2/yuwen yuwen

After I typed in that command, there is no such file (I checked by using cd&ls), and when I use su yuwen, it successfully changed into new user, but the home dir was still unchanged (not ssd2/yuwen as it supposed to be).

I also use command cat /etc/passwd to check if the new user is created. It is created but the home dir is not valid.

The following is the solution if you encounter the same situation like what I described:

1. Login in the linux server using a super user account which could use sudo
2. Use cd into the dir where you want to put the new user's dir. In my situation, the dir is /home/ssd2
3. Use mkdir to create the dir for new user, in my case, it is mkdir yuwen
4. Use sudo chown yuwen:yuwen /home/ssd2/yuwen to let your new user have the ownership.
5. Use sudo chmod -R yuwen /home/ssd2/yuwen, authorize it

Then you can use su yuwen, after that use cd ~, pwd to see that you are in the right directory.