Specifications

Chapter 8 Managing User and Group Accounts 109
To change a user account attribute to a new value:
1 Start the dscl tool in interactive mode, specifying the computer you are using as the
source of directory service data:
$ dscl localhost
>
2 Change the current folder to /LDAPv3/ipaddress/Users by entering the path at the
prompt:
> cd /LDAPv3/ ipaddress /Users
Replace ipaddress with the IP address of your directory server.
3 Authenticate as an administrator by entering the following command, replacing
adminusername with your administrator user name, and entering your administrator
password when prompted:
> auth adminusername
4 Set the user attribute to the desired value by entering the following command:
> create ajohnson attribute newvalue
Replace ajohnson with the user account’s short name, attribute with the name of the
attribute whose value you want to change, and newvalue with the value.
5 Quit dscl by entering:
> quit
Managing Home Folders
A Home folder is a folder where a user’s files and preferences are stored. Other users
can see a user’s Home folder and read files in its Public folder, but they can’t (by
default) access anything else in that folder. This is true only for other users whose Home
folders reside on the same server or share point.
When you create a user account in a directory domain on the network, you specify the
location of the user’s Home folder on the network. The location is stored in the user
account and used by various services, including the login window and Mac OS X
managed client services.
Creating a User’s Home Folder
Normally, you can create a user’s Home folder by clicking the Create Home Now button
on the Homes pane of Workgroup Manager. You can also create Home folders using
the createhomedir tool. Otherwise, Mac OS X Server creates the user’s Home folder
when the user logs in for the first time.
You can use
createhomedir to create:
 A Home folder for a specific user (-u option)
 Home folders for all users in a directory domain (-l or -n option)
 Home folders for all users in all domains in the folder search path (
-a option)