Administering user accounts

Adding and modifying user accounts

In the Account Manager, select Add New User from the Users menu, or select a user from the list and select Modify from the Users menu.

When adding a new user, you need only enter a name and assign a password. If you select Set password later, the user will not be able to log in until you assign one as described in ``Setting or changing a user password''.

You can alter any of these attributes (system defaults are used if you do not):

User ID number
Comment (optional)
Password
Login shell
Distribution (local or NIS) as described in ``Managing distributed user accounts''
Home directory
Login group
Group membership
Login controls and locks
Powers -- including authorizations and privileges
User type
Priority of the user's processes

NOTE: Remote administration (using the Open Host selection of the Host menu) requires user equivalence on the machine you plan to administer. The remote machine must recognize the account being used to administer users on the local machine. See ``Adding user equivalence'' for more information. As on the local machine, non-root accounts require the auth authorization to run the Account Manager. See ``Assigning subsystem authorizations'' for more information.

To change the system default values, select User Defaults from the Options menu.

You can also create users on the command line:

useradd username

Default values are used unless overridden by command line options described in the useradd(ADM) manual page.