userdel(8) - man - phpman

USERDEL(8)                           System Management Commands                           USERDEL(8)



NAME
       userdel - delete a user account and related files

SYNOPSIS
       userdel [options] LOGIN

DESCRIPTION
       userdel is a low level utility for removing users. On Debian, administrators should usually
       use deluser(8) instead.

       The userdel command modifies the system account files, deleting all entries that refer to the
       user name LOGIN. The named user must exist.

OPTIONS
       The options which apply to the userdel command are:

       -f, --force
           This option forces the removal of the user account, even if the user is still logged in.
           It also forces userdel to remove the user's home directory and mail spool, even if
           another user uses the same home directory or if the mail spool is not owned by the
           specified user. If USERGROUPS_ENAB is defined to yes in /etc/login.defs and if a group
           exists with the same name as the deleted user, then this group will be removed, even if
           it is still the primary group of another user.

           Note: This option is dangerous and may leave your system in an inconsistent state.

       -h, --help
           Display help message and exit.

       -r, --remove
           Files in the user's home directory will be removed along with the home directory itself
           and the user's mail spool. Files located in other file systems will have to be searched
           for and deleted manually.

           The mail spool is defined by the MAIL_DIR variable in the login.defs file.

       -R, --root CHROOT_DIR
           Apply changes in the CHROOT_DIR directory and use the configuration files from the
           CHROOT_DIR directory.

       -P, --prefix PREFIX_DIR
           Apply changes in the PREFIX_DIR directory and use the configuration files from the
           PREFIX_DIR directory. This option does not chroot and is intended for preparing a
           cross-compilation target. Some limitations: NIS and LDAP users/groups are not verified.
           PAM authentication is using the host files. No SELINUX support.

       -Z, --selinux-user
           Remove any SELinux user mapping for the user's login.

CONFIGURATION
       The following configuration variables in /etc/login.defs change the behavior of this tool:

       MAIL_DIR (string)
           The mail spool directory. This is needed to manipulate the mailbox when its corresponding
           user account is modified or deleted. If not specified, a compile-time default is used.

       MAIL_FILE (string)
           Defines the location of the users mail spool files relatively to their home directory.

       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)
           Maximum members per group entry. When the maximum is reached, a new group entry (line) is
           started in /etc/group (with the same name, same password, and same GID).

           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.

       USERDEL_CMD (string)
           If defined, this command is run when removing a user. It should remove any at/cron/print
           jobs etc. owned by the user to be removed (passed as the first argument).

           The return code of the script is not taken into account.

           Here is an example script, which removes the user's cron, at and print jobs:

               #! /bin/sh

               # Check for the required argument.
               if [ $# != 1 ]; then
                    echo "Usage: $0 username"
                    exit 1
               fi

               # Remove cron jobs.
               crontab -r -u $1

               # Remove at jobs.
               # Note that it will remove any jobs owned by the same UID,
               # even if it was shared by a different username.
               AT_SPOOL_DIR=/var/spool/cron/atjobs
               find $AT_SPOOL_DIR -name "[^.]*" -type f -user $1 -delete \;

               # Remove print jobs.
               lprm $1

               # All done.
               exit 0



       USERGROUPS_ENAB (boolean)
           If set to yes, userdel will remove the user's group if it contains no more members, and
           useradd will create by default a group with the name of the user.

FILES
       /etc/group
           Group account information.

       /etc/login.defs
           Shadow password suite configuration.

       /etc/passwd
           User account information.

       /etc/shadow
           Secure user account information.

       /etc/subgid
           Per user subordinate group IDs.

       /etc/subuid
           Per user subordinate user IDs.

EXIT VALUES
       The userdel command exits with the following values:

       0
           success

       1
           can't update password file

       2
           invalid command syntax

       6
           specified user doesn't exist

       8
           user currently logged in

       10
           can't update group file

       12
           can't remove home directory

CAVEATS
       userdel will not allow you to remove an account if there are running processes which belong
       to this account. In that case, you may have to kill those processes or lock the user's
       password or account and remove the account later. The -f option can force the deletion of
       this account.

       You should manually check all file systems to ensure that no files remain owned by this user.

       You may not remove any NIS attributes on a NIS client. This must be performed on the NIS
       server.

       If USERGROUPS_ENAB is defined to yes in /etc/login.defs, userdel will delete the group with
       the same name as the user. To avoid inconsistencies in the passwd and group databases,
       userdel will check that this group is not used as a primary group for another user, and will
       just warn without deleting the group otherwise. The -f option can force the deletion of this
       group.

SEE ALSO
       chfn(1), chsh(1), passwd(1), login.defs(5), gpasswd(8), groupadd(8), groupdel(8),
       groupmod(8), subgid(5), subuid(5), useradd(8), usermod(8).



shadow-utils 4.8.1                           02/06/2024                                   USERDEL(8)