adduser

Debian-friendly user and group management frontend

TLDR

Create a new user with a default home directory and prompt for a password

$ adduser [username]

Create a new user without a home directory

$ adduser --no-create-home [username]

Create a new user with a home directory at a specified path

$ adduser --home [path/to/home] [username]

Create a new user with a specified shell

$ adduser --shell [path/to/shell] [username]

Create a new user belonging to a specified group

$ adduser --ingroup [group] [username]

Add an existing user to a group

$ adduser [username] [group]

SYNOPSIS

adduser [options] user [group]

adduser adds users and groups to the system according to command line options and configuration in /etc/adduser.conf. It is a Debian-specific front end to the useradd, groupadd, and usermod programs with policy-compliant defaults.The utility chooses appropriate UID/GID values, creates home directories with skeletal configuration files, and supports both regular and system accounts.

PARAMETERS

--home dir

Specify home directory

--no-create-home

Skip home directory creation

--shell shell

Set login shell

--uid ID

Specify user ID

--gid GID

Set primary group ID

--ingroup GROUP

Set primary group by name

--system

Create system account

--group

Create group (or named group for system user)

--disabled-login

Disable login (no password set, login not possible until enabled)

--disabled-password

Do not set a password (login via other methods like SSH keys still possible)

--gecos GECOS

Set GECOS field (full name, room, phone, etc.) without interactive prompt

--add-extra-groups

Add user to EXTRA_GROUPS defined in config

--firstuid ID

Override the first UID in the range for new users

--lastuid ID

Override the last UID in the range for new users

--quiet

Suppress informational messages, only show warnings and errors

--debug

Be verbose, useful for troubleshooting

--conf file

Use alternate configuration file instead of /etc/adduser.conf

CONFIGURATION

/etc/adduser.conf

Controls default behavior including home directory base path, default shell, skeleton directory, UID/GID ranges, and whether to add users to extra groups automatically.

CAVEATS

This is a Debian/Ubuntu specific frontend; other distributions may use useradd directly with different defaults. The adduser command has stricter name validation by default.

HISTORY

Developed as a Debian-specific tool to provide a friendlier interface to user management with policy-compliant defaults.