Personal cheat sheet | Manage Linux users

Create a new user

Add a new user

sudo adduser robin

Create user and home directory

sudo useradd -m -s /bin/bash robin

Here, the -m flag creates the home directory for the user.

Interesting fact: If there is no home directory created for the user, the user can’t login using the GUI.

Add user to sudo group

sudo usermod -aG sudo robin

Note: If the user is not added to the sudo-er list, user cannot run the sudo commands.

Change user password

sudo passwd robin

Delete a user

sudo deluser robin

Delete a user with home directory

sudo deluser --remove-home robin

Change user name

sudo usermod -l newname oldname

Change user home directory

sudo usermod -d /new/home/dir -m username

Change user shell

sudo usermod -s /bin/bash robin