creating a system user with no home dir/no passwd..

[Johannes Findeisen]

On Monday 02 May 2005 19:55, bruce wrote:
> -----Original Message-----
> From: fedora-list-bounces at redhat.com
> [mailto:fedora-list-bounces at redhat.com]On Behalf Of Johannes Findeisen
> Sent: Monday, May 02, 2005 10:01 AM
> To: fedora-list at redhat.com
> Subject: Re: creating a system user with no home dir/no passwd..
>
> On Monday 02 May 2005 18:46, bruce wrote:
> > hi...
> >
> > i'm trying to figure out how to create a system user for an app. i don't
> > want the user to have a passwd/or a home dir.
> >
> > from google, it appears that this should be doable.. any thoughts...
> >
> > adduser ???
>
> man useradd
>
> ;-)
>
> i'm sure that was an attempt at humour.. i assume you thought that we
> hadn't already looked there...

Yes, it was a little bit humour but anyway how could you have looked there if 
you named the command "adduser"? So this really was _not_ a joke!

> but if you have no idea as to how to accomplish what i asked.. it's ok
> too...

I had no idea but i have looked in the manpage and have found the solution 
there.

<part src="man useradd">
-r     This  flag  is used to create a system account. That is, a user
       with  a  UID  lower  than  the  value  of  UID_MIN  defined  in
       /etc/login.defs  and  whose password does not expire. Note that
       useradd will not create a home  directory  for  such  an  user,
       regardless of the default setting in /etc/login.defs.  You have
       to specify -m option if you want a home directory for a  system
       account to be created.  This is an option added by Red Hat.
</part>

Okay other people have told you that too but thats what i have found in the 
manpage.

> ps. the man page doesn't shed light as to how to do it...

It really does! And please reply to the list and not only to me!

Regards
-- 
Johannes Findeisen