NAME
usermod - modify a user account
SYNOPSIS
usermod [options] LOGIN
DESCRIPTION
The usermod command modifies the system account files.
OPTIONS
The options which apply to the usermod command are:
-a, --append
-b, --badname
-c, --commentCOMMENT
-d, --homeHOME_DIR
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. If the current home directory does not exist the new home directory will not be created.
-e, --expiredateEXPIRE_DATE
An input of -1 or an empty string will blank the account expiration field in the shadow password file. The account will remain available with no date limit.
This option requires a /etc/shadow file. A /etc/shadow entry will be created if there were none.
-f, --inactiveINACTIVE
This option requires a /etc/shadow file. A /etc/shadow entry will be created if there were none.
-g, --gidGROUP
Any file from the user's home directory owned by the previous primary group of the user will be owned by this new group.
The group ownership of files outside of the user's home directory must be fixed manually.
The change of the group ownership of files inside of the user's home directory is also not done if the home dir owner uid is different from the current or new user id. This is a safety measure for special home directories such as /.
-G, --groupsGROUP1[,GROUP2,...[,GROUPN]]]
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, --loginNEW_LOGIN
-L, --lock
Note: if you wish to lock the account (not only access with a password), you should also set the EXPIRE_DATE to 1.
-m, --move-home
This option is only valid in combination with the -d (or --home) option.
usermod will try to adapt the ownership of the files and to copy the modes, ACL and extended attributes, but manual changes might be needed afterwards.
-o, --non-unique
This option is only valid in combination with the -u option. As a user identity serves as key to map between users on one hand and permissions, file ownerships and other aspects that determine the system's behavior on the other hand, more than one login name will access the account of the given UID.
-p, --passwordPASSWORD
Note: Avoid this option on the command line because the password (or encrypted password) will be visible by users listing the processes.
The password will be written in the local /etc/passwd or /etc/shadow file. This might differ from the password database configured in your PAM configuration.
You should make sure the password respects the system's password policy.
-r, --remove
-R, --rootCHROOT_DIR
-P, --prefixPREFIX_DIR
-s, --shellSHELL
-u, --uidUID
This value must be unique, unless the -o option is used. The value must be non-negative.
The user's mailbox, and any files which the user owns and which are located in the user's home directory will have the file user ID changed automatically.
The ownership of files outside of the user's home directory must be fixed manually.
The change of the user ownership of files inside of the user's home directory is also not done if the home dir owner uid is different from the current or new user id. This is a safety measure for special home directories such as /.
No checks will be performed with regard to the UID_MIN, UID_MAX, SYS_UID_MIN, or SYS_UID_MAX from /etc/login.defs.
-U, --unlock
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).
-v, --add-subuidsFIRST-LAST
This option may be specified multiple times to add multiple ranges to a user's account.
No checks will be performed with regard to SUB_UID_MIN, SUB_UID_MAX, or SUB_UID_COUNT from /etc/login.defs.
-V, --del-subuidsFIRST-LAST
This option may be specified multiple times to remove multiple ranges to a user's account. When both --del-subuids and --add-subuids are specified, the removal of all subordinate uid ranges happens before any subordinate uid range is added.
No checks will be performed with regard to SUB_UID_MIN, SUB_UID_MAX, or SUB_UID_COUNT from /etc/login.defs.
-w, --add-subgidsFIRST-LAST
This option may be specified multiple times to add multiple ranges to a user's account.
No checks will be performed with regard to SUB_GID_MIN, SUB_GID_MAX, or SUB_GID_COUNT from /etc/login.defs.
-W, --del-subgidsFIRST-LAST
This option may be specified multiple times to remove multiple ranges to a user's account. When both --del-subgids and --add-subgids are specified, the removal of all subordinate gid ranges happens before any subordinate gid range is added.
No checks will be performed with regard to SUB_GID_MIN, SUB_GID_MAX, or SUB_GID_COUNT from /etc/login.defs.
-Z, --selinux-userSEUSER
--selinux-rangeSERANGE
This option is only valid if the -Z (or --selinux-user) option is specified.
CAVEATS
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, the user's name, or the user's home directory is being changed. usermod checks this on Linux. On other operating systems it only uses utmp to check if the user is logged in.
You must change the owner of any crontab files or 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:
LASTLOG_UID_MAX (number)
No LASTLOG_UID_MAX option present in the configuration means that there is no user ID limit for writing lastlog entries.
MAIL_DIR (string)
MAIL_FILE (string)
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)
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.
SUB_GID_MIN (number), SUB_GID_MAX (number), SUB_GID_COUNT (number)
The default values for SUB_GID_MIN, SUB_GID_MAX, SUB_GID_COUNT are respectively 100000, 600100000 and 65536.
SUB_UID_MIN (number), SUB_UID_MAX (number), SUB_UID_COUNT (number)
The default values for SUB_UID_MIN, SUB_UID_MAX, SUB_UID_COUNT are respectively 100000, 600100000 and 65536.
FILES
/etc/group
/etc/gshadow
/etc/login.defs
/etc/passwd
/etc/shadow
/etc/subgid
/etc/subuid
SEE ALSO
chfn(1), chsh(1), passwd(1), crypt(3), gpasswd(8), groupadd(8), groupdel(8), groupmod(8), login.defs(5), subgid(5), subuid(5), useradd(8), userdel(8).