phpman > man > DELUSER(8)

DELUSER(8)                             System Manager's Manual                            DELUSER(8)



NAME
       deluser, delgroup - remove a user or group from the system

SYNOPSIS
       deluser [options] [--force] [--remove-home] [--remove-all-files] [--backup] [--backup-to DIR]
       user

       deluser --group [options] group
       delgroup [options] [--only-if-empty] group

       deluser [options] user group

   COMMON OPTIONS
       [--quiet] [--system] [--help] [--version] [--conf FILE]

DESCRIPTION
       deluser and delgroup remove users and groups from the system according to  command  line  op‐
       tions  and  configuration  information  in /etc/deluser.conf and /etc/adduser.conf.  They are
       friendlier front ends to the userdel and groupdel programs, removing the  home  directory  as
       option  or  even  all  files  on the system owned by the user to be removed, running a custom
       script, and other features.  deluser and delgroup can be run in one of three modes:

   Remove a normal user
       If called with one non-option argument and without the --group option, deluser will remove  a
       normal user.

       By  default, deluser will remove the user without removing the home directory, the mail spool
       or any other files on the system owned by the user. Removing  the  home  directory  and  mail
       spool can be achieved using the --remove-home option.

       The --remove-all-files option removes all files on the system owned by the user. Note that if
       you activate both options --remove-home will have no effect because all files  including  the
       home directory and mail spool are already covered by the --remove-all-files option.

       If  you  want  to  backup all files before deleting them you can activate the --backup option
       which will create a file username.tar(.gz|.bz2) in the directory specified by the --backup-to
       option  (defaulting to the current working directory). Both the remove and backup options can
       also  be  activated  for  default  in   the   configuration   file   /etc/deluser.conf.   See
       deluser.conf(5) for details.

       If you want to remove the root account (uid 0), then use the --force parameter; this may pre‐
       vent to remove the root user by accident.

       If the file /usr/local/sbin/deluser.local exists, it will be executed after the user  account
       has been removed in order to do any local cleanup. The arguments passed to deluser.local are:
       username uid gid home-directory


   Remove a group
       If deluser is called with the --group option, or delgroup is called, a group will be removed.

       Warning: The primary group of an existing user cannot be removed.

       If  the  option  --only-if-empty  is  given, the group won't be removed if it has any members
       left.


   Remove a user from a specific group
       If called with two non-option arguments, deluser will remove a user from a specific group.

OPTIONS
       --conf FILE
              Use FILE instead of the default files /etc/deluser.conf and /etc/adduser.conf

       --group
              Remove a group. This is the default action if the program is invoked as delgroup.

       --help Display brief instructions.

       --quiet
              Suppress progress messages.

       --system
              Only delete if user/group is a system user/group. This  avoids  accidentally  deleting
              non-system  users/groups.  Additionally, if the user does not exist, no error value is
              returned. This option is mainly for use in Debian package maintainer scripts.

       --only-if-empty
              Only remove if no members are left.

       --backup
              Backup all files contained in the userhome and the  mailspool-file  to  a  file  named
              /$user.tar.bz2 or /$user.tar.gz.

       --backup-to
              Place the backup files not in / but in the directory specified by this parameter. This
              implicitly sets --backup also.

       --remove-home
              Remove the home directory of the user and its mailspool. If --backup is specified, the
              files are deleted after having performed the backup.

       --remove-all-files
              Remove all files from the system owned by this user. Note: --remove-home does not have
              an effect any more. If --backup is specified, the files are deleted after having  per‐
              formed the backup.

       --version
              Display version and copyright information.

RETURN VALUE
       0      The action was successfully executed.

       1      The user to delete was not a system account. No action was performed.

       2      There is no such user. No action was performed.

       3      There is no such group. No action was performed.

       4      Internal error. No action was performed.

       5      The group to delete is not empty. No action was performed.

       6      The user does not belong to the specified group. No action was performed.

       7      You cannot remove a user from its primary group. No action was performed.

       8      The required perl-package 'perl modules' is not installed. This package is required to
              perform the requested actions. No action was performed.

       9      For removing the root account the parameter "--force" is required. No action was  per‐
              formed.


FILES
       /etc/deluser.conf Default configuration file for deluser and delgroup

       /usr/local/sbin/deluser.local
              Optional custom add-ons.


SEE ALSO
       adduser(8), deluser.conf(5), groupdel(8), userdel(8)


COPYRIGHT
       Copyright  (C)  2000  Roland  Bauerschmidt.  Modifications (C) 2004 Marc Haber and Joerg Hoh.
       This manpage and the deluser program are based on adduser which is:
       Copyright (C) 1997, 1998, 1999 Guy Maor.
       Copyright (C) 1995 Ted Hajek, with a great deal borrowed from the original Debian adduser
       Copyright (C) 1994 Ian Murdock.  deluser is free software; see the GNU General Public Licence
       version 2 or later for copying conditions.  There is no warranty.



Debian GNU/Linux                        Version 3.118ubuntu5                              DELUSER(8)