CentOS - Jan 2015 - C5 & C6 : useradd

On Sun, 2015-01-25 at 04:38 +0100, Dennis Jacobfeuerborn
wrote:
> On 25.01.2015 04:30, Always Learning wrote:
> > 
> > useradd --help
> > 
> >      -d, --home-dir HOME_DIR  home directory for the new user account
> >      -M, do not create user's home directory 
> > yet
> >      useradd -M -s /sbin/nologin FRED
> > 
> > produces in /etc/passwd
> > 
> >      fred:x:504:504::/home/fred:/sbin/nologin
> > 
> > Trying again with
> > 
> >      useradd -d /dev/null -s /sbin/nologin doris
> > 
> > gives a CLI message
> > 
> >      useradd: warning: the home directory already exists.
> >      Not copying any file from skel directory into it.
> > 
> > and in /etc/password
> > 
> >      doris:x:505:505::/dev/null:/sbin/nologin
> > 
> > QUESTION
> > 
> > What is the 'official' method of creating a user with no home
directory
> > and no log-on ability ?
> 
> Your first invocation seemed to look fine. What result do you expect to
> get? Every user needs a home directory in /etc/passwd even if it
doesn't
> exist.
Guten Morgen Denis,

Aber/But .....

	-M, do not create user's home directory 

so why do I see in /etc/passwd

	fred:x:504:504::/home/fred:/sbin/nologin

Should the 'correct' entry be:-

	fred:x:504:504:::/sbin/nologin  ?

OK, I can use -d /nix but what should -M actually do ?


-- 
Regards,

Paul.
England, EU.      Je suis Charlie.

On Sun, Jan 25, 2015 at 03:43:06AM +0000, Always Learning
wrote:
> 	-M, do not create user's home directory 
> 
> so why do I see in /etc/passwd
> 
> 	fred:x:504:504::/home/fred:/sbin/nologin
-M stops it doing a "mkdir" to create the actual directory in the
filesystem
> Should the 'correct' entry be:-
> 
> 	fred:x:504:504:::/sbin/nologin  ?
No; that's invalid.  There must be an entry in the home directory field.

-- 

rgds
Stephen

On Sat, 2015-01-24 at 22:45 -0500, Stephen Harris wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 25, 2015 at 03:43:06AM +0000, Always Learning wrote:
> > Should the 'correct' entry be:-
> > 
> > 	fred:x:504:504:::/sbin/nologin  ?
> 
> No; that's invalid.  There must be an entry in the home directory
field.
Thanks Stephen and Dennis for the helpful explanation.

I will use:    useradd -d /dev/null -s /sbin/nologin snowman


-- 
Regards,

Paul.
England, EU.      Je suis Charlie.