System accounts

System accounts are those needed for the operation of system-specific components
for example mail accounts and the sshd accounts. These accounts are usually
needed for some specific function on your system, and any modifications to them
could adversely affect the system.
sshd (OpenSSH Daemon) is the daemon program for ssh(1). Together these programs replace
rlogin and rsh, and provide secure encrypted communications between two untrusted hosts over
an insecure network.

User accounts

User accounts provide interactive access to the system for users and groups of
users. General users are typically assigned to these accounts and usually have
limited access to critical system files and directories.
Unix supports a concept of Group Account which logically groups a number of
accounts. Every account would be a part of another group account. A Unix group
plays important role in handling file permissions and process management.

Managing Users and Groups

There are four main user administration files −
 /etc/passwd − Keeps the user account and password information. This file holds the
majority of information about accounts on the Unix system.
 /etc/shadow − Holds the encrypted password of the corresponding account. Not all
the systems support this file.
 /etc/group − This file contains the group information for each account.
 /etc/gshadow − This file contains secure group account information.
Check all the above files using the cat command.
The following table lists out commands that are available on majority of Unix
systems to create and manage accounts and groups −

Sr.No Command & Description

.

1
useradd
Adds accounts to the system

2
usermod
Modifies account attributes
3
userdel
Deletes accounts from the system

4
groupadd
Adds groups to the system

5
groupmod
Modifies group attributes

6
groupdel
Removes groups from the system

You can use Manpage Help to check complete syntax for each command
mentioned here.

Create a Group
We will now understand how to create a group. For this, we need to create groups
before creating any account otherwise, we can make use of the existing groups in
our system. We have all the groups listed in /etc/groups file.
All the default groups are system account specific groups and it is not
recommended to use them for ordinary accounts. So, following is the syntax to
create a new group account −
groupadd [-g gid [-o]] [-r] [-f] groupname
The following table lists out the parameters −

Sr.No Option & Description

.

1
-g GID
The numerical value of the group's ID

2
-o
This option permits to add group with non-unique GID

3
-r
This flag instructs groupadd to add a system account
4
-f
This option causes to just exit with success status, if the specified group already exists.
With -g, if the specified GID already exists, other (unique) GID is chosen

5
groupname
Actual group name to be created

If you do not specify any parameter, then the system makes use of the default
values.
Following example creates a developers group with default values, which is very
much acceptable for most of the administrators.
$ groupadd developers

Modify a Group
To modify a group, use the groupmod syntax −
$ groupmod -n new_modified_group_name old_group_name
To change the developers_2 group name to developer, type −
$ groupmod -n developer developer_2
Here is how you will change the financial GID to 545 −
$ groupmod -g 545 developer

Delete a Group
We will now understand how to delete a group. To delete an existing group, all you
need is the groupdel command and the group name. To delete the financial
group, the command is −
$ groupdel developer
This removes only the group, not the files associated with that group. The files are
still accessible by their owners.

Create an Account
Let us see how to create a new account on your Unix system. Following is the
syntax to create a user's account −
useradd -d homedir -g groupname -m -s shell -u userid accountname
The following table lists out the parameters −

Sr.No Option & Description

.
1
-d homedir
Specifies home directory for the account

2
-g groupname
Specifies a group account for this account

3
-m
Creates the home directory if it doesn't exist

4
-s shell
Specifies the default shell for this account

5
-u userid
You can specify a user id for this account

6
accountname
Actual account name to be created

If you do not specify any parameter, then the system makes use of the default
values. The useradd command modifies the /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow,
and /etc/group files and creates a home directory.
Following is the example that creates an account mcmohd, setting its home
directory to /home/mcmohd and the group as developers. This user would have
Korn Shell assigned to it.
$ useradd -d /home/mcmohd -g developers -s /bin/ksh mcmohd
Before issuing the above command, make sure you already have
the developers group created using the groupadd command.
Once an account is created you can set its password using the passwd command
as follows −
$ passwd mcmohd20
Changing password for user mcmohd20.
New UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.
When you type passwd accountname, it gives you an option to change the
password, provided you are a superuser. Otherwise, you can change just your
password using the same command but without specifying your account name.

Modify an Account
The usermod command enables you to make changes to an existing account from
the command line. It uses the same arguments as the useradd command, plus the
-l argument, which allows you to change the account name.
For example, to change the account name mcmohd to mcmohd20 and to change
home directory accordingly, you will need to issue the following command −
$ usermod -d /home/mcmohd20 -m -l mcmohd mcmohd20

Delete an Account
The userdel command can be used to delete an existing user. This is a very
dangerous command if not used with caution.
There is only one argument or option available for the command .r, for removing the
account's home directory and mail file.
For example, to remove account mcmohd20, issue the following command −
$ userdel -r mcmohd20
If you want to keep the home directory for backup purposes, omit the -r option. You
can remove the home directory as needed at a later time.