1USERDEL(8) System Management Commands USERDEL(8)
2
6 userdel - delete a user account and related files
7
9 userdel [options] LOGIN
10
12 The userdel command modifies the system account files, deleting all
13 entries that refer to the user name LOGIN. The named user must exist.
14
16 The options which apply to the userdel command are:
17 -f, --force
19 This option forces the removal of the user account, even if the
20 user is still logged in. It also forces userdel to remove the
21 user's home directory and mail spool, even if another user uses the
22 same home directory or if the mail spool is not owned by the
23 specified user. If USERGROUPS_ENAB is defined to yes in
24 /etc/login.defs and if a group exists with the same name as the
25 deleted user, then this group will be removed, even if it is still
26 the primary group of another user.
27 Note: This option is dangerous and may leave your system in an
29 inconsistent state.
30 -h, --help
32 Display help message and exit.
33 -r, --remove
35 Files in the user's home directory will be removed along with the
36 home directory itself and the user's mail spool. Files located in
37 other file systems will have to be searched for and deleted
38 manually.
39 The mail spool is defined by the MAIL_DIR variable in the
41 login.defs file.
42 -R, --root CHROOT_DIR
44 Apply changes in the CHROOT_DIR directory and use the configuration
45 files from the CHROOT_DIR directory.
46 -Z, --selinux-user
48 Remove any SELinux user mapping for the user's login.
49
51 The following configuration variables in /etc/login.defs change the
52 behavior of this tool:
53 MAIL_DIR (string)
55 The mail spool directory. This is needed to manipulate the mailbox
56 when its corresponding user account is modified or deleted. If not
57 specified, a compile-time default is used.
58 MAIL_FILE (string)
60 Defines the location of the users mail spool files relatively to
61 their home directory.
62 The MAIL_DIR and MAIL_FILE variables are used by useradd, usermod, and
64 userdel to create, move, or delete the user's mail spool.
65 If MAIL_CHECK_ENAB is set to yes, they are also used to define the MAIL
67 environment variable.
68 MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP (number)
70 Maximum members per group entry. When the maximum is reached, a new
71 group entry (line) is started in /etc/group (with the same name,
72 same password, and same GID).
73 The default value is 0, meaning that there are no limits in the
75 number of members in a group.
76 This feature (split group) permits to limit the length of lines in
78 the group file. This is useful to make sure that lines for NIS
79 groups are not larger than 1024 characters.
80 If you need to enforce such limit, you can use 25.
82 Note: split groups may not be supported by all tools (even in the
84 Shadow toolsuite). You should not use this variable unless you
85 really need it.
86 USERDEL_CMD (string)
88 If defined, this command is run when removing a user. It should
89 remove any at/cron/print jobs etc. owned by the user to be removed
90 (passed as the first argument).
91 The return code of the script is not taken into account.
93 Here is an example script, which removes the user's cron, at and
95 print jobs:
96 #! /bin/sh
98 # Check for the required argument.
100 if [ $# != 1 ]; then
101 echo "Usage: $0 username"
102 exit 1
103 fi
104 # Remove cron jobs.
106 crontab -r -u $1
107 # Remove at jobs.
109 # Note that it will remove any jobs owned by the same UID,
110 # even if it was shared by a different username.
111 AT_SPOOL_DIR=/var/spool/cron/atjobs
112 find $AT_SPOOL_DIR -name "[^.]*" -type f -user $1 -delete \;
113 # Remove print jobs.
115 lprm $1
116 # All done.
118 exit 0
119 USERGROUPS_ENAB (boolean)
123 Enable setting of the umask group bits to be the same as owner bits
124 (examples: 022 -> 002, 077 -> 007) for non-root users, if the uid
125 is the same as gid, and username is the same as the primary group
126 name.
127 If set to yes, userdel will remove the user's group if it contains
129 no more members, and useradd will create by default a group with
130 the name of the user.
131
133 /etc/group
134 Group account information.
135 /etc/login.defs
137 Shadow password suite configuration.
138 /etc/passwd
140 User account information.
141 /etc/shadow
143 Secure user account information.
144
146 The userdel command exits with the following values:
147 0
149 success
150 1
152 can't update password file
153 2
155 invalid command syntax
156 6
158 specified user doesn't exist
159 8
161 user currently logged in
162 10
164 can't update group file
165 12
167 can't remove home directory
168
170 userdel will not allow you to remove an account if there are running
171 processes which belong to this account. In that case, you may have to
172 kill those processes or lock the user's password or account and remove
173 the account later. The -f option can force the deletion of this
174 account.
175 You should manually check all file systems to ensure that no files
177 remain owned by this user.
178 You may not remove any NIS attributes on a NIS client. This must be
180 performed on the NIS server.
181 If USERGROUPS_ENAB is defined to yes in /etc/login.defs, userdel will
183 delete the group with the same name as the user. To avoid
184 inconsistencies in the passwd and group databases, userdel will check
185 that this group is not used as a primary group for another user, and
186 will just warn without deleting the group otherwise. The -f option can
187 force the deletion of this group.
188
190 chfn(1), chsh(1), passwd(1), login.defs(5), gpasswd(8), groupadd(8),
191 groupdel(8), groupmod(8), useradd(8), usermod(8).
192shadow-utils 4.1.5.1 03/14/2019 USERDEL(8)