HP-UX Reference (11i v2 03/08) - 1M System Administration Commands N-Z (vol 4)

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userdel(1M) userdel(1M)
NAME
userdel - delete a user login from the system
SYNOPSIS
userdel [-r] 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).
Option
The following option is available to this command:
-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.
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.
NETWORKING FEATURES
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
login x does not exist
(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.
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.
HP-UX 11i Version 2: August 2003 − 1 − Hewlett-Packard Company Section 1M−−827