How to add users on FreeBSD using adduser or pw

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Add users on FreeBSD

I am a new FreeBSD system administrator. How do I add users on FreeBSD Unix operating systems using command line?FreeBSD is Unix like general-purpose operating systems. FreeBSD provides various tools to add, modify, and remove local user accounts using the CLI. This page shows how to add users on FreeBSD operating systems using useradd and pw commands.

The procedure is as follows:

Open the terminal app Switch to root user account using sudo -i OR su - Run adduser command for adding new users on FreeBSD interactively Delete user using rmuser command

Let us see all examples in details. First, list all shells on system using the grep command:

grep '/bin/' /etc/shells

Creating FreeBSD users from the command line using adduser

Log in as root user using the sudo command/su command:

sudo -i

Create the vivek user on FreeBSD, run:

adduser



Confirm that user exists in the system

Run the following cat command or grep command/egrep command:

cat /etc/passwd

tail -1 /etc/passwd

grep '^username' /etc/passwd

grep '^vivek' /etc/passwd



How do I change or set the password for vivek user

Please note that the /etc/passwd files stores user names and other information. The /etc/passwd file is generated from the /etc/master.passwd file by pwd_mkdb command.

Run the passwd command as follows:

passwd vivek



FreeBSD allow sudo privileges for user

Make sure sudo is installed on FreeBSD and wheel group is allowed as follows:

# visudo

Sample outputs:

## Uncomment to allow members of group wheel to execute any command %wheel ALL = ( ALL ) ALL ## Uncomment to allow members of group wheel to execute any command %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

Save and close the file. Any FreeBSD user who is a member of the wheel group can run a command using sudo. Use the id command to find out if vivek is part of wheel group

# id -Gn vivek

vivek wheel

If not add user vivek to the wheel group, run:

# pw groupmod wheel -m vivek

Verify it using the /etc/group file

# id -Gn vivek

# grep '^wheel' /etc/group



How to delete or remove user account

The rmuser command removes one or more users submitted on the command line or from a file in FreeBSD operating system. Run:

# rmuser username

# rmuser

## delete user named marlena

# rmuser marlena



grep '^marlena' /etc/passwd

cat /etc/passwd

id marlena

id: marlena: no such user

How to use pw command

Confirm that marlena user is successfully deleted from FreeBSD box:Sample outputs:

The pw command create, remove, modify & display system users and groups. It has many more options. For example:

pw user help

pw user add help

pw user del help

pw user mod help

pw group help

pw lock help

pw unlock help

In this example, add user named marlena as follows:

# pw user add -n marlena -c 'Marlean Root' -d /home/marlena -G wheel -m -s /usr/local/bin/bash

Where,

-n marlena : login name

: login name -c 'Marlena Root' : user name/comment

: user name/comment -d /home/marlena : home directory

: home directory -G wheel : additional groups (add to wheel group)

: additional groups (add to wheel group) -m : create and set up home

: create and set up home -s /usr/local/bin/bash : name of login shell

One can local and unlock FreeBSD user using the pw command:

# pw lock marlena

# pw unlock marlena

See pw command man page for more info:

man pw

Conclusion

This page demonstrated how to create several users on your FreeBSD Unix box, set passwords for those users, and delete them if the need arises using various commands.