NEWUSERS(8)               System Management Commands               NEWUSERS(8)

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       newusers - <?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?>

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       newusers [options] [file]

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       The newusers command reads a file (or the standard input by default)
       and uses this information to update a set of existing users or to
       create new users. Each line is in the same format as the standard
       password file (see passwd(5)) with the exceptions explained below:

       pw_name:pw_passwd:pw_uid:pw_gid:pw_gecos:pw_dir:pw_shell

       pw_name
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           It can be the name of a new user or the name of an existing user
           (or a user created before by newusers). In case of an existing
           user, the user's information will be changed, otherwise a new user
           will be created.

       pw_passwd
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       pw_uid
           <?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?> UID<?>

           If the field is empty, a new (unused) UID will be defined
           automatically by newusers.

           <?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?> UID<?>

           If this field contains the name of an existing user (or the name of
           a user created before by newusers), the UID of the specified user
           will be used.

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           UID<?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?>

       pw_gid
           <?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?> ID<?>

           If this field contains the name of an existing group (or a group
           created before by newusers), the GID of this group will be used as
           the primary group ID for the user.

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           ID<?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?> GID <?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?> GID
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           If this field is empty, a new group will be created with the name
           of the user and a GID will be automatically defined by newusers to
           be used as the primary group ID for the user and as the GID for the
           new group.

           If this field contains the name of a group which does not exist
           (and was not created before by newusers), a new group will be
           created with the specified name and a GID will be automatically
           defined by newusers to be used as the primary group ID for the user
           and GID for the new group.

       pw_gecos
           <?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?> GECOS <?><?><?>

       pw_dir
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           If this field does not specify an existing directory, the specified
           directory is created, with ownership set to the user being created
           or updated and its primary group. Note that newusers does not
           create parent directories  of the new user's home directory. The
           newusers command will fail to create the home directory if the
           parent directories do not exist, and will send a message to stderr
           informing the user of the failure. The newusers command will not
           halt or return a failure to the calling shell if it fails to create
           the home directory, it will continue to process the batch of new
           users specified.

           If the home directory of an existing user is changed, newusers does
           not move or copy the content of the old directory to the new
           location. This should be done manually.

       pw_shell
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           shell<?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?><?>

       newusers first tries to create or change all the specified users, and
       then write these changes to the user or group databases. If an error
       occurs (except in the final writes to the databases), no changes are
       committed to the databases.

       During this first pass, users are created with a locked password (and
       passwords are not changed for the users which are not created). A
       second pass is used to update the passwords using PAM. Failures to
       update a password are reported, but will not stop the other password
       updates.

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       The options which apply to the newusers command are:

       --badname
           Allow names that do not conform to standards.

       -h, --help
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       -r, --system
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           System users will be created with no aging information in
           /etc/shadow, and their numeric identifiers are chosen in the
           SYS_UID_MIN-SYS_UID_MAX range, defined in login.defs, instead of
           UID_MIN-UID_MAX (and their GID counterparts for the creation of
           groups).

       -R, --root CHROOT_DIR
           Apply changes in the CHROOT_DIR directory and use the configuration
           files from the CHROOT_DIR directory. Only absolute paths are
           supported.

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

       GID_MAX (number), GID_MIN (number)
           Range of group IDs used for the creation of regular groups by
           useradd, groupadd, or newusers.

           The default value for GID_MIN (resp.  GID_MAX) is 1000 (resp.
           60000).

       HOME_MODE (number)
           The mode for new home directories. If not specified, the UMASK is
           used to create the mode.

           useradd and newusers use this to set the mode of the home directory
           they create.

       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.

       PASS_MAX_DAYS (number)
           The maximum number of days a password may be used. If the password
           is older than this, a password change will be forced. If not
           specified, -1 will be assumed (which disables the restriction).

       PASS_MIN_DAYS (number)
           The minimum number of days allowed between password changes. Any
           password changes attempted sooner than this will be rejected. If
           not specified, 0 will be assumed (which disables the restriction).

       PASS_WARN_AGE (number)
           The number of days warning given before a password expires. A zero
           means warning is given only upon the day of expiration, a value of
           -1 means no warning is given. If not specified, no warning will be
           provided.

       SUB_GID_MIN (number), SUB_GID_MAX (number), SUB_GID_COUNT (number)
           If /etc/subuid exists, the commands useradd and newusers (unless
           the user already have subordinate group IDs) allocate SUB_GID_COUNT
           unused group IDs from the range SUB_GID_MIN to SUB_GID_MAX for each
           new user.

           The default values for SUB_GID_MIN, SUB_GID_MAX, SUB_GID_COUNT are
           respectively 100000, 600100000 and 65536.

       SUB_UID_MIN (number), SUB_UID_MAX (number), SUB_UID_COUNT (number)
           If /etc/subuid exists, the commands useradd and newusers (unless
           the user already have subordinate user IDs) allocate SUB_UID_COUNT
           unused user IDs from the range SUB_UID_MIN to SUB_UID_MAX for each
           new user.

           The default values for SUB_UID_MIN, SUB_UID_MAX, SUB_UID_COUNT are
           respectively 100000, 600100000 and 65536.

       SYS_GID_MAX (number), SYS_GID_MIN (number)
           Range of group IDs used for the creation of system groups by
           useradd, groupadd, or newusers.

           The default value for SYS_GID_MIN (resp.  SYS_GID_MAX) is 101
           (resp.  GID_MIN-1).

       SYS_UID_MAX (number), SYS_UID_MIN (number)
           Range of user IDs used for the creation of system users by useradd
           or newusers.

           The default value for SYS_UID_MIN (resp.  SYS_UID_MAX) is 101
           (resp.  UID_MIN-1).

       UID_MAX (number), UID_MIN (number)
           Range of user IDs used for the creation of regular users by useradd
           or newusers.

           The default value for UID_MIN (resp.  UID_MAX) is 1000 (resp.
           60000).

       UMASK (number)
           The file mode creation mask is initialized to this value. If not
           specified, the mask will be initialized to 022.

           useradd and newusers use this mask to set the mode of the home
           directory they create if HOME_MODE is not set.

           It is also used by pam_umask as the default umask value.

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       /etc/passwd
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       /etc/shadow
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       /etc/group
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       /etc/gshadow
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       /etc/login.defs
           Shadow <?><?><?><?><?><?><?>

       /etc/pam.d/newusers
           PAM configuration for newusers.

       /etc/subgid
           Per user subordinate group IDs.

       /etc/subuid
           Per user subordinate user IDs.

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       login.defs(5), passwd(1), subgid(5), subuid(5), useradd(8).

shadow-utils 4.16.0               2024-07-02                       NEWUSERS(8)