userdel

Remove a user

$ sudo userdel username

$ sudo userdel -r username

$ sudo userdel -f username

$ sudo userdel -R /path/to/chroot username

userdel [options] LOGIN

userdel removes user accounts and deletes associated entries from system files. On Debian systems, the higher-level deluser command is often preferred.

-f, --force

Force removal even if user is logged in; also removes home directory and mail spool regardless of ownership

Remove home directory and mail spool

Apply changes in a chroot environment

Apply changes in a prefix directory

Remove SELinux user mappings

Display help message

The -f option is dangerous and may leave the system in an inconsistent state. User files outside the home directory are not removed automatically. Running processes owned by the user should be terminated before deletion.

userdel is part of the shadow-utils package. On Debian systems, deluser provides additional features like backup creation.

deluser(8), useradd(8), usermod(8), groupdel(8)