NAME

inituser − Set up a new user. 

SYNOPSIS

/usr/sbin/inituser

DESCRIPTION

Inituser is a program which allows existing users to easily and safely add a new user to the system.  On entering inituser , you will be prompted for a user (login) name and the users full name (used in the gecos field of the passwd structure).  You will then be prompted to enter a passwd (with confirmation - as usual).  The program expects the chosen password to be at least 6 characters long, but doesn’t check on the security of it. 

The program automatically fills in the user id (it finds the first available (unused) uid > 100) and the group id.  It also creates a home directory for the named user. 

SECURITY

For the sake of system security, inituser refuses to work on systems that are running NIS (aka Yellow Pages). 

The program allocates user ids serially from 100 upwards.  The group id allocated is that of the user running inituser unless that is group 0, in which case group 100 is allocated instead. 

The system is shipped with inituser installed such that only root and those in group ‘wheel’ can access it.  If the system administrator chooses to make the facility available to all users, the program should be given mode 4755. 

FILES

/etc/passwd
/etc/group
/etc/ptmp
/etc/passwd.pag
/etc/passwd.dir

SEE ALSO

useradmin(8)

BUGS

It is possible to create user names with spaces in them. 

4.2 Berkeley Distribution  —  Revision 1.2 of 25/11/90