userdel.1m (2010 09)

ManualsBrandsHP ManualsSoftwareHP-UX Manpages

userdel(1M) userdel(1M)

NAME

userdel - delete a user login from the system

SYNOPSIS

userdel [-r][-F][

-P -S alternate_password_ﬁle] login

DESCRIPTION

The

userdel command deletes a user login from the system by modifying the appropriate login related

ﬁles.

The

userdel command requires the login argument. login is the name to be deleted, speciﬁed as a

string of printable characters. It may not contain a colon (

:) or a newline (\n).

Refer to usergroupname(5) to understand the functionality changes with the Numeric User Group Name

feature.

Options

userdel recognizes the following options:

-r The home directory of login is removed from the system. This directory must exist. Fol-

lowing the successful execution of this command, none of the ﬁles and directories under

the home directory will be available.

If a user is deleted and the home directory is shared by others, then this directory is not

deleted even with the

-r option.

-F Force the changes, even if the login is currently in use.

-P Specify that the changes are being made to the alternate password ﬁle of NIS speciﬁed by

the -S option. The -r and -F options should not be used with this option.

-S alternate_password_file

Specify the path of the alternate password ﬁle of NIS. The -P option is used with the

-S

option.

In the event where a directory is shared by users of the same group and the owner of that directory is

deleted, then the ownership of that directory is propagated to the next user who is sharing that directory.

The new owner is determined by looking at the order in which the users sharing this directory are added

to the

/etc/passwd ﬁle. If there is only one user remaining then the directory is brought back to

unshared mode by resetting the permissions to 755 from 775.

NIS

This command is aware of NIS user and group entries. Only local users and groups may be deleted or

modiﬁed with this command. Attempts to delete or modify NIS users or groups will result in an error.

NIS users and groups must be administered from the NIS server. The

userdel command may fail with

the error

(return value 6) if the user speciﬁed is an NIS user (see passwd (4)). The error

Cannot modify /etc/group file, /etc/passwd was modified

(return value 10) is returned if a local user belongs to an NIS group (see group(4)).

NFS

Errors may occur with the

-r option if the affected directory is within an NFS mounted ﬁle system that

does not allow root privileges across the NFS mount, and the directory or ﬁles within the directory do not

have sufﬁcient permissions.

RETURN VALUE

userdel exits with one of the following values:

0 Successful completion.

2 Invalid command syntax.

3 Invalid argument supplied to an option.

6 The login to be removed does not exist.

HP-UX 11i Version 3: September 2010 − 1 − Hewlett-Packard Company 1

Summary of content (2 pages)

PAGE 1
userdel(1M) userdel(1M) NAME userdel - delete a user login from the system SYNOPSIS userdel [-r] [-F] [-P -S alternate_password_file ] login DESCRIPTION The userdel command deletes a user login from the system by modifying the appropriate login related files. The userdel command requires the login argument. login is the name to be deleted, specified as a string of printable characters. It may not contain a colon (:) or a newline (\n).
PAGE 2
userdel(1M) userdel(1M) 8 The login to be removed is in use. 10 Cannot modify the /etc/group file, but the login was removed from the /etc/passwd file. 12 Unable to remove or modify the home directory. 13 Unable to open /etc/ptmp file or /etc/passwd file is non-existent. 14 /etc/passwd file or /etc/ptmp file busy. Another command may be modifying the /etc/passwd file. 17 Cannot delete entry from /etc/passwd file. 18 Out of memory. 19 Invalid template file.