Managing User Accounts in Linux

Hello friends today I will let you know how to manage user accounts in Linux. You must have created at least one account apart from root in Linux if you are using it. If there are many users who are using your system and if your work is confidential then you would like to create separate user account for each of them.

So what is user account? It is an account which distinguishes different users of the computer.

Creating a new user

Most of the Linux distributions come with a program for creating accounts that can be accessed through GUI. You can also create new user accounts alternatively through the terminal. "useradd" and "adduser" are the two commands that can be used to create new user accounts. A new user can only be created by root login or user. If you use "adduser" command then you will be prompted to provide a username , password and other details. In few seconds your new user account will be created on your system.

Now to delete a user, you just need to type:

$ deluser username

You need to be careful before deleting an account.

Changing user properties

There may be GUI application which can be used to find and change user settings. Sure-shot way of doing so is via the terminal. These are the following commands for changing various properties of an account:

chfn: It is used to change the full name field.

chsh: It is used to change the login shell.

passwd: This command is used to change the password of a user.