Adding Users Command line

[Bret Stern]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: redhat-install-list-bounces at redhat.com 
> [mailto:redhat-install-list-bounces at redhat.com] On Behalf Of 
> Bob McClure Jr
> Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 1:28 PM
> To: redhat-install-list at redhat.com
> Subject: Re: Adding Users Command line
> 
> On Tue, Oct 17, 2006 at 01:16:14PM -0700, Bret Stern wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > When adding users from the (command line)
> > 
> > useradd 
> > 
> > has an option -r which assigns a specific user id.
> 
> Nope, that tells it to assign a "system-level" user id number, usually
> less than 500 or 1000.  These are designed for pseudo users assigned
> to subsystems and processes like mysql, procmail, backup, bin, et al.
> 
> > Is it common to explicitly assign a user id?
> 
> Only if you want to make it the same as on another system or to force
> a duplicated UID.
> 
> > What happens if I don't specifically assign a user id?
> 
> It takes the next available UID in the desired range.  That's usually
> figured by taking the highest occupied UID in the range and adding
> one.
> 
> > I'm assuming two users cannot have the same user id,
> > so..how would you know the user id's of all your users?
> 
> You don't need to, but if you must, look at the third field (delimited
> by ':') in /etc/passwd.  Unless you have some good reason to specify a
> UID, just let the system assign one.
> 
> > Thanks
> 
> Cheers,
> -- 
> Bob McClure, Jr.             Bobcat Open Systems, Inc.
> bob at bobcatos.com             http://www.bobcatos.com
> "Where you go in the hereafter depends on what you were after here."
>   - Thanks to Graffiti, 2 March 2004
> 
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Thanks for the explanations.

I'll look in my programming library for examples of
using a user id for processing needs. But for my typical
users needs, it's crystal clear now.

Again, cheers