NEWUSER(8)                   System Administration                  NEWUSER(8)

NAME

       newuser, newuserv - add a new user to the system

SYNOPSIS

       newuser [ -v ] [ -g gid ]
       newuserv [ -v ] [ -g gid ]

DESCRIPTION

       This  manual  page  documents newuser and newuserv version 1.2 for GNO.
       Its basic intent is to let people add themselves to the system  without
       requiring the system administrator to do it all manually.

       newuser will ask for a real name, account name, terminal type and pass‐
       word (verifying the  password  once)  and  then  create  the  directory
       /home/account_name.   newuser will also copy all the regular files from
       the /var/adm/newuser/skel directory into the /home/account_name  direc‐
       tory.  It will not recurse.  Finally, it will add the appropriate entry
       to /etc/passwd and then exit.

       If the -v (verify) flag is selected, or if invoked as newuserv,  every‐
       thing  is  done  as  normal,  except  that the new entry is appended to
       /var/adm/newuser/pending instead of being appended to /etc/passwd.

       Accounts are normally created with group ID 100.  The -g flag overrides
       this group ID.

       Both  newuser and newuserv will log created accounts via syslogd(8) us‐
       ing the auth.info facility.

       newuser will time out after 60 seconds of operation.

FILES

       /home  The directory where new user home directories will be placed.

       /var/adm/newuser/newid
              The text file containing the next available user  ID.   It  must
              consist  of  exactly one line, containing only a decimal number.
              newuser will update this file as required.

       /var/adm/newuser/pending
              This file contains all of the /etc/passwd entries that are wait‐
              ing for approval before activation.

       /var/adm/newuser/skel
              All  regular files in this directory will be copied to the newly
              created home directory.

BUGS

       newuser should create a lock file in /var/locks to ensure that  a  race
       condition  with multiple instantiations is avoided.  They are currently
       possible.

AUTHOR

       James Brookes.  Maintained by Devin Reade.



GNO                            14 February 1999                     NEWUSER(8)