Add a user from the command line in Solaris

Contributor Icon Contributed by qmchenry Date Icon August 17, 2003  
Tag Icon Tagged: Solaris system administration

How to use useradd in Solaris to add a user


You must be root (superuser) to add a user. An easy way to remember the syntax of the useradd command in Solaris is to run it with no options. Follow the resulting usage information including the parts that you require. Important options are:

-d home-directory-path
This is the new user’s home directory, typically /export/home/username

-m
make home directory and copy the default skeleton files (these files are located in /etc/skel directory).

-u uid
The uid (userid) is a number from 0 to 65535 which identifies the user on the system. uid 0 is reserved for root. If you don’t specify one, the next available uid will be used automatically.

-c “User Name”
Comment field which usually contains the name of the user. Make sure you enclose the name in quotes if it contains a space.

-s /path/to/shell
The shell to use. If you don’t specify this, it will default to /bin/sh. Make sure you specify the fully qualified path.

So, putting it together, a typical addition of a user named fred would be:

useradd -d /export/home/fred -m -s /bin/ksh -c "Fred Smith" fred

It’s a smart idea to run pwck (passwd check) whenever you make a change to the /etc/passwd file (as when adding or chaning a user). This program will identify any problems with the passwd file. If it doesn’t tell you anything, then you are in good shape.

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  • question
    but what's fred's password when you want to log on with fred??
  • fred
    still, as root, run 'passwd fred' to set fred's password.
  • flexinfo
    # passwd -r files fred

    for completness since it specifies that you are changing the local passwd file and not nis/ldap.
  • Orion
    then 'passwd -f fred' to force him to change password on next login
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