[MAN] deluser

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deluser.conf

Section: File Formats (5)
Updated: Version 3.116ubuntu1
Index Return to Main Contents

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NAME

/etc/deluser.conf - configuration file for deluser(8) and delgroup(8).  

DESCRIPTION

The file /etc/deluser.conf contains defaults for the programs deluser(8) and delgroup(8). Each option takes the form option = value. Double or single quotes are allowed around the value. Comment lines must have a hash sign (#) at the beginning of the line.

deluser(8) and delgroup(8) also read /etc/adduser.conf, see adduser.conf(5); settings in deluser.conf may overwrite settings made in adduser.conf.

The valid configuration options are:

REMOVE_HOME

Removes the home directory and mail spool of the user to be removed. Value may be 0 (don't delete) or 1 (do delete).

REMOVE_ALL_FILES

Removes all files on the system owned by the user to be removed. If this option is activated REMOVE_HOME has no effect. Values may be 0 or 1.

BACKUP

If REMOVE_HOME or REMOVE_ALL_FILES is activated all files are backuped before they are removed. The backup file that is created defaults to username.tar(.gz|.bz2) in the directory specified by the BACKUP_TO option. The compression method is chosen to the best that is available. Values may be 0 or 1.

BACKUP_TO

If BACKUP is activated, BACKUP_TO specifies the directory the backup is written to. Default is the current directory.

NO_DEL_PATHS

A list of regular expressions, space separated. All files to be deleted in course of deleting home directories or deleting files owned by the user to be deleted are checked against each of these regular expressions. If a match is detected, the file is not deleted. Defaults to a list of system directories, leaving only /home.

In other words: By default only files below /home belonging to that specific user are going to be deleted.

ONLY_IF_EMPTY

Only delete a group if there are no users belonging to this group. Defaults to 0.

EXCLUDE_FSTYPES

A regular expression which describes all file systems which should be excluded when looking for files of a user to be deleted. Defaults to "(proc|sysfs|usbfs|devpts|tmpfs|afs)".

 

FILES

/etc/deluser.conf  

SEE ALSO

adduser.conf(5), delgroup(8), deluser(8)

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Index

NAME

DESCRIPTION

FILES

SEE ALSO

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DELUSER

Section: Maintenance Commands (8)
Updated: Version 3.116ubuntu1
Index Return to Main Contents

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NAME

deluser, delgroup - remove a user or group from the system  

SYNOPSIS

deluser [options] [--force] [--remove-home] [--remove-all-files] [--backup] [--backup-to DIR] user

deluser --group [options] group
delgroup [options] [--only-if-empty] group

deluser [options] user group  

COMMON OPTIONS

[--quiet] [--system] [--help] [--version] [--conf FILE]  

DESCRIPTION

deluser and delgroup remove users and groups from the system according to command line options and configuration information in /etc/deluser.conf and /etc/adduser.conf. They are friendlier front ends to the userdel and groupdel programs, removing the home directory as option or even all files on the system owned by the user to be removed, running a custom script, and other features. deluser and delgroup can be run in one of three modes:  

Remove a normal user

If called with one non-option argument and without the --group option, deluser will remove a normal user.

By default, deluser will remove the user without removing the home directory, the mail spool or any other files on the system owned by the user. Removing the home directory and mail spool can be achieved using the --remove-home option.

The --remove-all-files option removes all files on the system owned by the user. Note that if you activate both options --remove-home will have no effect because all files including the home directory and mail spool are already covered by the --remove-all-files option.

If you want to backup all files before deleting them you can activate the --backup option which will create a file username.tar(.gz|.bz2) in the directory specified by the --backup-to option (defaulting to the current working directory). Both the remove and backup options can also be activated for default in the configuration file /etc/deluser.conf. See deluser.conf(5) for details.

If you want to remove the root account (uid 0), then use the --force parameter; this may prevent to remove the root user by accident.

If the file /usr/local/sbin/deluser.local exists, it will be executed after the user account has been removed in order to do any local cleanup. The arguments passed to deluser.local are:
username uid gid home-directory

 

Remove a group

If deluser is called with the --group option, or delgroup is called, a group will be removed.

Warning: The primary group of an existing user cannot be removed.

If the option --only-if-empty is given, the group won't be removed if it has any members left.

 

Remove a user from a specific group

If called with two non-option arguments, deluser will remove a user from a specific group.  

OPTIONS

--conf FILE

Use FILE instead of the default files /etc/deluser.conf and /etc/adduser.conf

--group

Remove a group. This is the default action if the program is invoked as delgroup.

--help

Display brief instructions.

--quiet

Suppress progress messages.

--system

Only delete if user/group is a system user/group. This avoids accidentally deleting non-system users/groups. Additionally, if the user does not exist, no error value is returned. This option is mainly for use in Debian package maintainer scripts.

--only-if-empty

Only remove if no members are left.

--backup

Backup all files contained in the userhome and the mailspool-file to a file named /$user.tar.bz2 or /$user.tar.gz.

--backup-to

Place the backup files not in / but in the directory specified by this parameter. This implicitly sets --backup also.

--remove-home

Remove the home directory of the user and its mailspool. If --backup is specified, the files are deleted after having performed the backup.

--remove-all-files

Remove all files from the system owned by this user. Note: --remove-home does not have an effect any more. If --backup is specified, the files are deleted after having performed the backup.

--version

Display version and copyright information.

 

RETURN VALUE

0

The action was successfully executed.

1

The user to delete was not a system account. No action was performed.

2

There is no such user. No action was performed.

3

There is no such group. No action was performed.

4

Internal error. No action was performed.

5

The group to delete is not empty. No action was performed.

6

The user does not belong to the specified group. No action was performed.

7

You cannot remove a user from its primary group. No action was performed.

8

The required perl-package 'perl modules' is not installed. This package is required to perform the requested actions. No action was performed.

9

For removing the root account the parameter "--force" is required. No action was performed.

 

FILES

/etc/deluser.conf Default configuration file for deluser and delgroup

/usr/local/sbin/deluser.local

Optional custom add-ons.

 

SEE ALSO

adduser(8), deluser.conf(5), groupdel(8), userdel(8)

 

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2000 Roland Bauerschmidt. Modifications (C) 2004 Marc Haber and Joerg Hoh. This manpage and the deluser program are based on adduser which is:
Copyright (C) 1997, 1998, 1999 Guy Maor.
Copyright (C) 1995 Ted Hajek, with a great deal borrowed from the original Debian adduser
Copyright (C) 1994 Ian Murdock. deluser is free software; see the GNU General Public Licence version 2 or later for copying conditions. There is no warranty.

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Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

COMMON OPTIONS

DESCRIPTION

Remove a normal user

Remove a group

Remove a user from a specific group

OPTIONS

RETURN VALUE

FILES

SEE ALSO

COPYRIGHT

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This document was created by man2html, using the manual pages.
Time: 04:46:01 GMT, September 16, 2022