newusers(8)

1NEWUSERS(8)               System Management Commands               NEWUSERS(8)
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NAME

6       newusers - update and create new users in batch
7

SYNOPSIS

9       newusers [options] [file]
10

DESCRIPTION

12       The newusers command reads a file (or the standard input by default)
13       and uses this information to update a set of existing users or to
14       create new users. Each line is in the same format as the standard
15       password file (see passwd(5)) with the exceptions explained below:
16
17       pw_name:pw_passwd:pw_uid:pw_gid:pw_gecos:pw_dir:pw_shell
18
19       pw_name
20           This is the name of the user.
21
22           It can be the name of a new user or the name of an existing user
23           (or a user created before by newusers). In case of an existing
24           user, the user's information will be changed, otherwise a new user
25           will be created.
26
27       pw_passwd
28           This field will be encrypted and used as the new value of the
29           encrypted password.
30
31       pw_uid
32           This field is used to define the UID of the user.
33
34           If the field is empty, a new (unused) UID will be defined
35           automatically by newusers.
36
37           If this field contains a number, this number will be used as the
38           UID.
39
40           If this field contains the name of an existing user (or the name of
41           a user created before by newusers), the UID of the specified user
42           will be used.
43
44           If the UID of an existing user is changed, the files ownership of
45           the user's file should be fixed manually.
46
47       pw_gid
48           This field is used to define the primary group ID for the user.
49
50           If this field contains the name of an existing group (or a group
51           created before by newusers), the GID of this group will be used as
52           the primary group ID for the user.
53
54           If this field is a number, this number will be used as the primary
55           group ID of the user. If no groups exist with this GID, a new group
56           will be created with this GID, and the name of the user.
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58           If this field is empty, a new group will be created with the name
59           of the user and a GID will be automatically defined by newusers to
60           be used as the primary group ID for the user and as the GID for the
61           new group.
62
63           If this field contains the name of a group which does not exist
64           (and was not created before by newusers), a new group will be
65           created with the specified name and a GID will be automatically
66           defined by newusers to be used as the primary group ID for the user
67           and GID for the new group.
68
69       pw_gecos
70           This field is copied in the GECOS field of the user.
71
72       pw_dir
73           This field is used to define the home directory of the user.
74
75           If this field does not specify an existing directory, the specified
76           directory is created, with ownership set to the user being created
77           or updated and its primary group. Note that newusers does not
78           create parent directories of the new user's home directory. The
79           newusers command will fail to create the home directory if the
80           parent directories do not exist, and will send a message to stderr
81           informing the user of the failure. The newusers command will not
82           halt or return a failure to the calling shell if it fails to create
83           the home directory, it will continue to process the batch of new
84           users specified.
85
86           If the home directory of an existing user is changed, newusers does
87           not move or copy the content of the old directory to the new
88           location. This should be done manually.
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90       pw_shell
91           This field defines the shell of the user. No checks are performed
92           on this field.
93
94       newusers first tries to create or change all the specified users, and
95       then write these changes to the user or group databases. If an error
96       occurs (except in the final writes to the databases), no changes are
97       committed to the databases.
98
99       This command is intended to be used in a large system environment where
100       many accounts are updated at a single time.
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OPTIONS

103       The options which apply to the newusers command are:
104
105       --badname
106           Allow names that do not conform to standards.
107
108       -c, --crypt-method
109           Use the specified method to encrypt the passwords.
110
111           The available methods are DES, MD5, NONE, and SHA256 or SHA512 if
112           your libc support these methods.
113
114       -h, --help
115           Display help message and exit.
116
117       -r, --system
118           Create a system account.
119
120           System users will be created with no aging information in
121           /etc/shadow, and their numeric identifiers are chosen in the
122           SYS_UID_MIN-SYS_UID_MAX range, defined in login.defs, instead of
123           UID_MIN-UID_MAX (and their GID counterparts for the creation of
124           groups).
125
126       -R, --root CHROOT_DIR
127           Apply changes in the CHROOT_DIR directory and use the configuration
128           files from the CHROOT_DIR directory.
129
130       -s, --sha-rounds
131           Use the specified number of rounds to encrypt the passwords.
132
133           The value 0 means that the system will choose the default number of
134           rounds for the crypt method (5000).
135
136           A minimal value of 1000 and a maximal value of 999,999,999 will be
137           enforced.
138
139           You can only use this option with the SHA256 or SHA512 crypt
140           method.
141
142           By default, the number of rounds is defined by the
143           SHA_CRYPT_MIN_ROUNDS and SHA_CRYPT_MAX_ROUNDS variables in
144           /etc/login.defs.
145

CAVEATS

147       The input file must be protected since it contains unencrypted
148       passwords.
149
150       You should make sure the passwords and the encryption method respect
151       the system's password policy.
152

CONFIGURATION

154       The following configuration variables in /etc/login.defs change the
155       behavior of this tool:
156
157       ENCRYPT_METHOD (string)
158           This defines the system default encryption algorithm for encrypting
159           passwords (if no algorithm are specified on the command line).
160
161           It can take one of these values: DES (default), MD5, SHA256,
162           SHA512. MD5 and DES should not be used for new hashes, see crypt(5)
163           for recommendations.
164
165           Note: this parameter overrides the MD5_CRYPT_ENAB variable.
166
167       GID_MAX (number), GID_MIN (number)
168           Range of group IDs used for the creation of regular groups by
169           useradd, groupadd, or newusers.
170
171           The default value for GID_MIN (resp.  GID_MAX) is 1000 (resp.
172           60000).
173
174       HOME_MODE (number)
175           The mode for new home directories. If not specified, the UMASK is
176           used to create the mode.
177
178           useradd and newusers use this to set the mode of the home directory
179           they create.
180
181       MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP (number)
182           Maximum members per group entry. When the maximum is reached, a new
183           group entry (line) is started in /etc/group (with the same name,
184           same password, and same GID).
185
186           The default value is 0, meaning that there are no limits in the
187           number of members in a group.
188
189           This feature (split group) permits to limit the length of lines in
190           the group file. This is useful to make sure that lines for NIS
191           groups are not larger than 1024 characters.
192
193           If you need to enforce such limit, you can use 25.
194
195           Note: split groups may not be supported by all tools (even in the
196           Shadow toolsuite). You should not use this variable unless you
197           really need it.
198
199       MD5_CRYPT_ENAB (boolean)
200           Indicate if passwords must be encrypted using the MD5-based
201           algorithm. If set to yes, new passwords will be encrypted using the
202           MD5-based algorithm compatible with the one used by recent releases
203           of FreeBSD. It supports passwords of unlimited length and longer
204           salt strings. Set to no if you need to copy encrypted passwords to
205           other systems which don't understand the new algorithm. Default is
206           no.
207
208           This variable is superseded by the ENCRYPT_METHOD variable or by
209           any command line option used to configure the encryption algorithm.
210
211           This variable is deprecated. You should use ENCRYPT_METHOD.
212
213       PASS_MAX_DAYS (number)
214           The maximum number of days a password may be used. If the password
215           is older than this, a password change will be forced. If not
216           specified, -1 will be assumed (which disables the restriction).
217
218       PASS_MIN_DAYS (number)
219           The minimum number of days allowed between password changes. Any
220           password changes attempted sooner than this will be rejected. If
221           not specified, 0 will be assumed (which disables the restriction).
222
223       PASS_WARN_AGE (number)
224           The number of days warning given before a password expires. A zero
225           means warning is given only upon the day of expiration, a negative
226           value means no warning is given. If not specified, no warning will
227           be provided.
228
229       SHA_CRYPT_MIN_ROUNDS (number), SHA_CRYPT_MAX_ROUNDS (number)
230           When ENCRYPT_METHOD is set to SHA256 or SHA512, this defines the
231           number of SHA rounds used by the encryption algorithm by default
232           (when the number of rounds is not specified on the command line).
233
234           With a lot of rounds, it is more difficult to brute forcing the
235           password. But note also that more CPU resources will be needed to
236           authenticate users.
237
238           If not specified, the libc will choose the default number of rounds
239           (5000), which is orders of magnitude too low for modern hardware.
240
241           The values must be inside the 1000-999,999,999 range.
242
243           If only one of the SHA_CRYPT_MIN_ROUNDS or SHA_CRYPT_MAX_ROUNDS
244           values is set, then this value will be used.
245
246           If SHA_CRYPT_MIN_ROUNDS > SHA_CRYPT_MAX_ROUNDS, the highest value
247           will be used.
248
249       SUB_GID_MIN (number), SUB_GID_MAX (number), SUB_GID_COUNT (number)
250           If /etc/subuid exists, the commands useradd and newusers (unless
251           the user already have subordinate group IDs) allocate SUB_GID_COUNT
252           unused group IDs from the range SUB_GID_MIN to SUB_GID_MAX for each
253           new user.
254
255           The default values for SUB_GID_MIN, SUB_GID_MAX, SUB_GID_COUNT are
256           respectively 100000, 600100000 and 65536.
257
258       SUB_UID_MIN (number), SUB_UID_MAX (number), SUB_UID_COUNT (number)
259           If /etc/subuid exists, the commands useradd and newusers (unless
260           the user already have subordinate user IDs) allocate SUB_UID_COUNT
261           unused user IDs from the range SUB_UID_MIN to SUB_UID_MAX for each
262           new user.
263
264           The default values for SUB_UID_MIN, SUB_UID_MAX, SUB_UID_COUNT are
265           respectively 100000, 600100000 and 65536.
266
267       SYS_GID_MAX (number), SYS_GID_MIN (number)
268           Range of group IDs used for the creation of system groups by
269           useradd, groupadd, or newusers.
270
271           The default value for SYS_GID_MIN (resp.  SYS_GID_MAX) is 101
272           (resp.  GID_MIN-1).
273
274       SYS_UID_MAX (number), SYS_UID_MIN (number)
275           Range of user IDs used for the creation of system users by useradd
276           or newusers.
277
278           The default value for SYS_UID_MIN (resp.  SYS_UID_MAX) is 101
279           (resp.  UID_MIN-1).
280
281       UID_MAX (number), UID_MIN (number)
282           Range of user IDs used for the creation of regular users by useradd
283           or newusers.
284
285           The default value for UID_MIN (resp.  UID_MAX) is 1000 (resp.
286           60000).
287
288       UMASK (number)
289           The file mode creation mask is initialized to this value. If not
290           specified, the mask will be initialized to 022.
291
292           useradd and newusers use this mask to set the mode of the home
293           directory they create if HOME_MODE is not set.
294
295           It is also used by login to define users' initial umask. Note that
296           this mask can be overridden by the user's GECOS line (if
297           QUOTAS_ENAB is set) or by the specification of a limit with the K
298           identifier in limits(5).
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FILES

301       /etc/passwd
302           User account information.
303
304       /etc/shadow
305           Secure user account information.
306
307       /etc/group
308           Group account information.
309
310       /etc/gshadow
311           Secure group account information.
312
313       /etc/login.defs
314           Shadow password suite configuration.
315
316       /etc/subgid
317           Per user subordinate group IDs.
318
319       /etc/subuid
320           Per user subordinate user IDs.
321