adduser

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 and set shell to /usr/sbin/nologin

--disabled-password

Prevent password setting

--comment comment

Set GECOS field information

--add-extra-groups

Add user to EXTRA_GROUPS defined in config

--quiet

Suppress messages

--conf file

Use alternate configuration file

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.