24/6/2015

Howto: Linux Add User To Group

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nixCraft
Linux and Unix tutorials for new and seasoned sysadmin.

Howto: Linux Add User To Group

by Vivek Gite on March 14, 2006

How can I add a user to a group under Linux operating system using command line options? How to add an existing user into a group in Linux using command line
options?
You can use the useraddor usermodcommands to add a user to a group. The useradd command creates a new user or update default new user information. The
usermod command modifies a user account and it is useful to add user to existing groups. There are two types of groups under Linux operating systems:
1. Primary user group.
2. Secondary or supplementary user group.

Tutorial details
Difficulty
Intermediate (rss)
Root privileges
Yes
All user account related information are stored in the following files:
Requirements
usermod/useradd
Estimated completion time 5 minutes
1. /etc/passwd - Contains one line for each user account.
2. /etc/shadow - Contains the password information in encrypted formatfor the system's accounts and optional account aging information.
3. /etc/group - Defines the groups on the system.
4. /etc/default/useradd - This file contains a value for the default group, if none is specified by the useradd command.
5. /etc/login.defs - This file defines the site-specific configuration for the shadow password suite stored in /etc/shadow file.

useradd Example - Add a new user to secondary group

You need to the useradd command to add new users to existing group (or create a new group and then add user). If group does not exist, create it. The syntax is as
follows:
useradd -G {group-name} username

In this example, create a new user called vivek and add it to group called developers. First login as a root user (make sure group developers exists), enter:
# grep developers /etc/group

Output:
developers:x:1124:

If you do not see any output then you need to add group developers using the groupadd command:
# groupadd developers

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Next, add a user called vivek to group developers:

# useradd -G developers vivek

Setup password for user vivek:

# passwd vivek

Ensure that user added properly to group developers:

# id vivekOutput:
uid=1122(vivek) gid=1125(vivek) groups=1125(vivek),1124(developers)

Please note that capital G (-G) option add user to a list of supplementary groups. Each group is separated from the next by a comma, with no intervening whitespace. For
example, add user jerry to groups admins, ftp, www, and developers, enter:
# useradd -G admins,ftp,www,developers jerry

useradd example - Add a new user to primary group

To add a user tony to group developers use the following command:
# useradd -g developers tony
# id tony

Sample outputs:
uid=1123(tony) gid=1124(developers) groups=1124(developers)

Please note that small g (-g) option add user to initial login group (primary group). The group name must exist. A group number must refer to an already existing group.

usermod example - Add a existing user to existing group

Add existing user tony to ftp supplementary/secondary group with the usermod command using the -aoption ~ i.e. add the user to the supplemental group(s). Use only
with -Goption:
# usermod -a -G ftp tony

In this example, change tony user's primary group to www, enter:

# usermod -g www tony

usermod command options summary

Option
-a
--append
-g GROUP
--gid GROUP
-G GRP1,GRP2

Purpose
Add the user to the supplementary group(s). Use only with the -Goption.
Use this GROUP as the default group.
Add the user to GRP1,GRP2 secondary group.

--groups GRP1,GRP2

A note about security

If you add or delete user to existing group, you must change the owner of any crontab files or at jobs manually. You must make any changes involving NIS on the NIS
server too.

A note about GUI tool

You will probably find the use of the GUI tool easy. KDE user can use KUser tool and the GNOME user can use users-admin tool called system-config-users:
# system-config-users

Sample outputs:

Fig.01: User Manager Tool in action (image credit Fedora project)

See also

For more information type the following command at the shell prompt:
$ man usermod
$ man useradd

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Tweet itFacebook itGoogle+ itPDF itFound an error/typo on this page?

{ 121 comments add one }
praj March 26, 2006, 4:05 pm
How can i run the passwd command
non-interactively in linux . I want to change the password through a script file.How can i
invoke the passwd command thru a script file non-interactively.
If thats not possible then suggest
some alternative
Reply Link
manoj May 6, 2011, 2:18 pm
Multiple entries named audio in /etc/group. Please fix this with pwck or grpck.
usermod: error adding new group entry
Reply Link
nixcraft March 26, 2006, 8:02 pm
See shell script example here
Reply Link
BackSeat August 14, 2006, 3:41 pm
praj: see chpasswd(8)
Reply Link
BnK December 6, 2006, 8:51 pm
thanks!
time saving tip for new admin. I can read man page but it is full of shit-load and no examples at all. keep it up good work!
Reply Link
Sren June 19, 2007, 10:37 am
I find the easiest way to add a user to a group is using gpasswd like this:
gpasswd -a
Reply Link
Sren June 19, 2007, 10:38 am
This editor bugs me :) The command should be:
gpasswd -a user group
Reply Link
Frogbert July 11, 2007, 6:52 am
This is wrong, usermod -G ftp tony will take you out of all your existing groups. Not add a new one.
Reply Link
nixCraft July 12, 2007, 6:13 pm
Yes Im adding a existing user to existing group, but to keep user in other old group you need to use:
usermod -G oldgroup1, oldgroup2, ftp tony

Reply Link
lefty.crupps October 15, 2014, 5:39 pm
Youre suggesting wed need to know each group first? Perhaps telling us that above would be good, also including the command to find the current
oldgroup1 oldgroup1 stuff:
groups lefty
Also, whats the difference between useradd and adduser?
Whats the differences between distros?
The article could use some reorganization as well to make the concept flow better, but the article has good info, just not laid out super-clearly. IMHO.
Reply Link
vim July 14, 2007, 2:41 am
Actually, its easier to go like this:
usermod -a -G ftp tony
The -a causes your old groups to be kept. At least in the newer versions. I was looking into this and found an old manpage where the -a function is not documented.
Since I dont know when this feature was introduced, you should check for it on the man pages before using it.
Reply Link
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nixCraft July 14, 2007, 10:15 pm

vim,
-a seems to a new option. This FAQ has been updated to include -a.
Appreciate your post!
Reply Link
Themba March 16, 2015, 8:06 am
The -a option is not working on ubuntu 14.04
Reply Link
derry August 7, 2007, 10:25 pm
I recommend that when you need to add people to an existing group to use
gpasswd -a USER GROUP
Reply Link
Steve Francia August 19, 2007, 6:24 pm
Using:
usermod (pwdutils) 3.1.2
there is no -a option available, so that options is a fairly new one, it also appears to be nonstandard across *NIX.
Reply Link
rupa August 22, 2007, 9:06 am
thanks for -a option, it saved my time on centos
Reply Link
emiat February 1, 2011, 4:43 am
tnx a lot
Reply Link
ratna December 16, 2011, 11:51 am
R u still in same Domain?
Regards
Ratna
Reply Link
suresh January 7, 2008, 12:01 pm
why this command didnt work on sun solaris 10 ?
#useradd -u 100 -g other -d /export/home/newuser1 -m -s /bin/ksh -c Regular User Account newuser1
Error :uid 100 already in use
Reply Link
soliver January 25, 2008, 9:20 pm
Hello,
how can I give a usergroup root rights?
I would like to create a group developer but they need root access as well.
thanks,
Oliver
Reply Link
Ryan March 13, 2012, 1:13 am
No one needs to assign root access to their own account. Not even you. Add them to the wheel group.
Reply Link
soliver January 25, 2008, 9:23 pm
I also want to give another user root access.
That way you can do PermitRootLogin yes, which is more secure.
Reply Link
Nilesh January 26, 2008, 3:09 pm
install sudo.
then edit /etc/sudoers (or other location)
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and append the line%developer ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

This will give the users in group developer the root access but will need to type
sudo
The above setup will not demand root password
Reply Link
chris March 11, 2008, 6:47 pm
Now that I foolishly ran:
usermod -G ftp chris

Is there anyway I get access back to all the groups I had before?
I am using Ubuntu so I dont have a password for the root user.
Reply Link
nixCraft March 11, 2008, 7:31 pm
See if you have backup in /etc/group- or restore it from your tape backup.
HTH
Reply Link
chris March 11, 2008, 7:50 pm
no tape backup and unless the etc/group file is auto backedup I dont have one of those either.
Reply Link
nixCraft March 12, 2008, 5:28 am
May be this will help
Reply Link
LiLo April 30, 2008, 8:34 am
Hi,
Is there a way to automatically create a MySQL database when creating the user?
(the new database would be named after the user and with the same login / password)
Reply Link
nixCraft April 30, 2008, 12:48 pm
You need to write a shell script; there is no built in option to create mysql db.
Reply Link
LiLo April 30, 2008, 2:04 pm
OK, so for instance, with webmin which allows the creation of users from a text using useradd, it would not be possible to automatically add a database for each
call of useradd without modifying webmin
Thats not making my life any easier :)
Reply Link
toti May 2, 2008, 4:19 am
Hi newb here ;)
I have a quick question: in CentOS 5, when I type usermod -a -G ftp tony I always get the error invalid numeric argument ftp why is that?
Reply Link
toti May 2, 2008, 4:20 am
sorry just read the disclaimer on leave reply disregard my question :|
Reply Link
RobM June 6, 2008, 8:27 pm
If you modified your own user account while logged in with it, the changes will not have an effect until you next login.
If you dont want to logout, you can replace your current BASH shell with a new one to achieve the same thing by running the follow:
su preserve-environment command $(which $SHELL) login -i $(whoami)
This will switch-user to yourself, replacing your current shell with a new instance of itself. You will be prompted for your password.
If you dont specify a command to run youll probably get an error to the effect of cannot execute bash: file not found because it wont be on the environment.
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You could use shell to point su at it, but your shell wouldnt be a login shell and therefore wont read your .bash_profile etc.
Reply Link
kishore June 19, 2008, 9:58 am
Hi friends,
I want to say thanks for u.Because of this post i created the users myself without anyones help.
Thanks and Regards
Kishore
Reply Link
helpneeded June 26, 2008, 11:30 am
why do we need to add new users in linux?
Reply Link
nixCraft June 26, 2008, 1:31 pm
Linux is multiuser operating system. User can maintain their privacy and security.
Reply Link
HAMEED June 27, 2008, 9:18 am
WHAT IS THE COMMAND TO CHECK THE EXISTING GROUPS IN THE SYSTEM AND ALSO COMMAND TO CHECK THE USERS ???
Reply Link
itsadok July 5, 2008, 6:16 am
There are simpler commands (at least on Ubuntu):
adduser user group

will add an existing user to an existing group

deluser user group

will remove a user from a specified group

Reply Link
David Brown July 6, 2008, 9:04 pm
In the past when Ive upgraded to the latest edition of Ubuntu Ive added any existing users by entering the user name, real name, password etc. into the Users and
Groups dialogue boxes and all worked fine.
However with upgrading to Hardy when I do the same an error flags up saying Home Directory Already Exists Please enter a different home directory path and
Ive been unable to re-instate the users.
Can anyone tell me how to add these users
Reply Link
JuLian henDra July 8, 2008, 4:06 am
How do I listed all existing users and group by command line in Ubuntu, thanks
Reply Link
vishwas July 8, 2008, 5:45 am
how to add two groups in a group
for eg: group1 and group2 these group should be added to another group called group3
Reply Link
functionsys August 21, 2008, 5:16 am
whyyyyyyyyy how i can fix it
FunctionSys@FunctionSys-PC ~/mysql
$ groupadd
bash: groupadd: command not found
FunctionSys@FunctionSys-PC ~/mysql
$ /usr/sbin/groupadd
bash: /usr/sbin/groupadd: No such file or directory
FunctionSys@FunctionSys-PC ~/mysql
$ useradd -G {mysql} mysql
bash: useradd: command not found
FunctionSys@FunctionSys-PC ~/mysql
$
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Suresh September 22, 2008, 10:06 am

Hi Vivek,
your tutorial is really nice to follow.
I have a scenario, where i need to create a super user and subuser(1,2,3) for accessing ftp in our webserver it is linux with redhat on it. so that super user can
access all the subuser folders, and subusers can access only their folders respectively.
I havent created any of the groups, so i would like to know from scratch like defining users and creating permissions.
since I am new to this linux environment, it would be great if you could post commands like the one above for the scenario i explained.
Many Thanks.
Suresh
Reply Link
eve October 22, 2008, 1:38 pm
i have 2 group. Group A and Group B.
I have a existing user in Group A.
Now i want to add this existing user to Group B too.
What should i do?
Thanks You.
Reply Link
Aksuli October 31, 2008, 9:43 pm
Ive managed to add account.
richard@richard-desktop:~$ sudo useradd -G admin,dialout,cdrom,floppy,audio,dip,video,plugdev,fuse,lpadmin aksu
richard@richard-desktop:~$ sudo passwd aksu
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully
richard@richard-desktop:~$ id aksu
uid=1001(aksu) gid=1001(aksu)
groups=1001(aksu),20(dialout),24(cdrom),25(floppy),29(audio),30(dip),44(video),46(plugdev),107(fuse),109(lpadmin),115(admin)

Now I have a problem, when I connect the server says:

Could not chdir to home directory /home/aksu: No such file or directory
How can I manage that to work out right. ATM I cant use TAB for filling in file/folder names etc.. PLZ help me out :)
Reply Link
vishwas November 3, 2008, 4:00 am
Aksuli type this command it will help u
1) richard@richard-desktop:~$ sudo useradd -G admin,dialout,cdrom,floppy,audio,dip,video,plugdev,fuse,lpadmin aksu -d /home/aksu
2) mkdir /home/aksu
Reply Link
kenny November 14, 2008, 7:01 pm
i type in useradd command but i get the response command not found.what is the problem
Reply Link
Pratik Patel November 15, 2008, 5:10 am
Please tell me how can i add multiple users to one group at a single shot.
Reply Link
Ryan November 20, 2008, 11:59 pm
To add a user to multiple groups man useradd
-G, groups GROUP1[,GROUP2,[,GROUPN]]]
A list of supplementary groups which the user is also a member of.
Each group is separated from the next by a comma, with no intervening whitespace. The groups are subject to the same restrictions as the group given with the -g
option.
The default is for the user to belong only to the initial group.
Reply Link
junaid January 21, 2009, 9:10 am
thanks a alot buddy for help. keep it up
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Suggestions::
plz insert search tool with in website.
GOD bless YOU
Reply Link
hyacinth February 4, 2009, 3:01 am
How to delete and add a group..
please help me..
Thanks
Reply Link
dunno February 13, 2009, 9:41 pm
complete noob with linux here
what are the actual groups that you can add users to?
i know theres the users group for standard users but what else is there? can i add a user as a sysadmin with full control over the system? or is that the same as
logging in as root?
i also understand its apperently a bad idea to login as root into KDE but why?
sorry, like i said, complete noob. just installed yesterday.
oh, and also, even though i realize this isnt the right place to ask this, i have no idea where else to ask and ive been seraching for this for hours how do you
mount a new hard drive? theres plenty of info telling how to mount a cdrom or a floppy drive, or even a usb thumb drive, but NOWHERE does anything or anyone
say how to mount a simple hard drive. is it not possible to add an additional hard drive? i cant believe that that would be impossible, so theres got to be a way.
Reply Link
wasim March 9, 2009, 12:14 pm
to add user in multiple group
usermod -G group1,group2 username
Reply Link
Patrick March 29, 2009, 6:04 pm
i have 3 sites. MainSite TestSite and FileSite. Main and Test need to be apart of the FileSite group to be able to read/write/delete files.
usermod -a -G MainSite,TestSite FileSite
is that right?
Reply Link
Aheebwa Edgar May 19, 2009, 6:16 pm
pliz thanx so much for your ideas but my question was how to add one user to the linux group.am waiting right now.
God bless you
Reply Link
Aheebwa Edgar May 19, 2009, 6:46 pm
i need just a command to add user to a group.thank you
Reply Link
Snap June 5, 2009, 2:44 am
If I have a user that is only used to run scripts (started by fetchmail), but I do not actually ever log in as such user in the console. I have added that user to a group to
get access to a folder, but it does not seem to work.. if it was a normal user, I would simply log out and log in again to activate my membership in this group.. but
since I never log in with this user, how can I make sure that it is actually a member of the group?
Reply Link
balu phani July 29, 2009, 6:18 am
hi
i want to create a user say testusr and i dont want to get home directory for him and his individual group (generally he will belong to his group testusr group i
dont want it) but i have already have a common group say cmngrp so he should belong to it only.
i think my point is clear
create testusr without home directory and without his own group but belongs to cmngrp.
Reply Link
balu phani July 29, 2009, 7:29 am
i got it
useradd -Ng -M
Reply Link
wasim July 29, 2009, 11:38 am
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you can check existing group by this command

cat /etc/group | cut -d : -f1
Reply Link
yogesh kolte October 28, 2009, 8:29 am
it was very helpful to usermod command to modified changes the user
Reply Link
Vlad the Impaler November 8, 2009, 9:26 am
To check groups and who is in the group, the easiest is cat /etc/group. Smile!
Reply Link
karim November 21, 2009, 9:18 am
Hi ,
Say i have a group called music.
I want every new user henceforth created to automatically have the music group as their secondary group on top of the primary group that will be added by the
system.
Is this possible?
Thanks
Reply Link
Al B.. January 15, 2010, 8:56 pm
son of monkeys uncle there is no usermod -a option is SUSE Ent 10
Reply Link
esraa March 24, 2010, 7:47 pm
thanks
Reply Link
esraa March 28, 2010, 7:31 pm
i wante cleared code in shell script programming to add user and add groupe
thanks
Reply Link
zerc May 5, 2010, 2:15 pm
Hi,
Thank you for this tutorial !
Reply Link
Arvind May 19, 2010, 5:37 am
Thank you for this tutorial !
Reply Link
umer ahmed June 5, 2010, 5:39 pm
good tutorial
thanks
:)
Reply Link
Andey June 5, 2010, 10:16 pm
ive probably used this page like 50 times because im still to lazy to learn usermod
Reply Link
Brian Maskell June 9, 2010, 7:11 pm
This page (http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-linux-add-user-to-group/) has a reference to the group file /etc/group, the target of the link being:
http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/understanding-etcpasswd-file-format/
It should be:
http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/understanding-etcgroup-file/
Reply Link
nixCraft June 10, 2010, 6:05 am
Thanks for the heads up!

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Reply Link
uzer July 4, 2010, 7:51 pm
Hey, Im getting
[user@localhost ~]$ sudo su
[sudo] password for user:
user is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
Reply Link
shane williamson July 7, 2010, 2:03 am
Okay these commands DO NOT WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reply Link
indir July 9, 2010, 6:25 am
thanks, its works for me :)
Reply Link
selven September 15, 2010, 7:44 pm
seriously, this is so gay! in my days to add a user to a group, we just had to add it in /etc/group! i dont understand why there should be a tool to complicate it!
Reply Link
nic September 16, 2010, 2:49 pm
I like to use a for loop for this. For exampled
for i in group1 group2 group3 ...; do adduser $i; done

Reply Link
Tom O'Connell October 7, 2010, 3:22 pm
I am using Mint 9 and have no knowledge of either command line or archive manager.
Can you steer me to the easiest tutorial.
Thanks,
Reply Link
dx November 4, 2010, 10:06 am
how many users can be in a group? i want to add 500 users to group mailusers. wont that be slowing down my mailserver?
regards
Reply Link
syed December 9, 2010, 7:53 pm
i have need in one account and multiple sign
Reply Link
NURUL HUDA January 9, 2011, 4:04 pm
I have lost my all inbox mails unexpectedly.Is it possible to retrive again?please help me.
Reply Link
emiat February 1, 2011, 4:52 am
what is the 1st step on how to add group in active directory 2003? And 1st step of how to add group in active directory?
emiat.
Reply Link
Rodislav Moldovan April 3, 2011, 10:01 pm
#works in Debian 6
Add user to a new group, by keeping old groups
usermod -a -G AdditionalGroup User
-a append
-G group name
Reply Link
Rashid May 12, 2011, 10:50 am
thanks for sharing useful and knowledgeable topic
Reply Link
Extra June 27, 2011, 8:02 am
Oh yeah man! This is the best site i ever meet, on helping users to quick find the answer to concrete Question! Thank you so much for the FAQ archive! wish you
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the best thinks.

this is the primary site, that i search for responses to Linux Qs.
Reply Link
Laxman Rana September 20, 2011, 4:37 am
thanks this tutorial to learn about user add with groups modification
nicely this iz working on my pc in linux
Reply Link
Neth Kong October 8, 2011, 4:16 pm
Hi all, I would like to write a script in Linux to manage User and Group.
*** they are able to add, delete, modify,,,,,,
Would you please help me?
Reply Link
da_fatfinger October 20, 2011, 10:48 pm
I made the mistake of not including -a in usermod as well, now im locked of doing anything useful in ubuntu. Granted im a linux newbie, so hard lessons like this are
bound to happen, but you would save many headaches with just a small, clear explanation at the top about how flags (especially -a) are vital to how usermod
works. Since you are THE top google hit for linux add user to group, you would save a lot of people some serious pain.
Reply Link
Vivek November 9, 2011, 2:04 pm
Any idea howto add existing group into another existing group ?
Ex: test1 group has 5 users
test2 group has 3 users
i want to add test1 group to be part of test2, instead of adding the users.
Reply Link
vlad the impaler December 8, 2011, 12:43 pm
Can you please emboss, move to top, highlight, make it red and blink FFS !!!
99 % of the people want an user added to an existing group, not moved.
Only on Linux, add is a special type of move (sarcasm).
Please, for this tutorial of yours, that comes up on google, this is what we want:
usermod -a -G ftp tony
not this:
usermod -G ftp tony
Maybe with time we will learn Linux and face this issues more bravely, but most of us that come here have rather trivial experience with Linux, we want to learn..
but we want to learn how to add an user to a group (of course existing, is the natural way) no how to damage our systems.
Call me stupid, but it is the 2nd time I revisit this issue, being forced to again reinstall my linux box because of damaging my sudoers list.
Please, put a big red or whatever flashy warning on top of the article, notifying people about the sudeoers bite.
Reply Link
miquel January 12, 2012, 8:11 am
Nice explanation
Reply Link
diptesh maity February 22, 2012, 3:02 pm
how to create user under user in linux?? not from superuser.
Reply Link
Subrat N January 10, 2013, 6:03 pm
You should know the root password.
$su -c useradd u_name
or through sudo
Reply Link
marc March 26, 2012, 8:22 am
I knew that useradd could add a user to the system but I did not know that it would for a group as well. Thanks for this how-to then.
Reply Link
remove this April 10, 2012, 3:28 pm
This post is wrong and its the top search result on google. You should edit or remove it.
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The correct way to add a user to a group is usermod -aG groupname username.
Reply Link
nitiratna nikalje April 25, 2012, 1:19 pm
its mind blowing solution for adding user to any group .we can add multiple existing users to an existing group by this method # gpasswd -M niti,gauri,lina,nidhi masti
=added user niti ,gauri ,lina and nidhi to group masti
Reply Link
Jeremy June 11, 2012, 5:03 pm
Thanks, this is helpful for people like myself; just starting out with RHEL.
Reply Link
dhani September 18, 2012, 8:21 am
Thank you, this really solve my problems in samba share.
Reply Link
Bijay Manandhar September 20, 2012, 6:24 am
really nice tutorial ..
thanx millions..
Reply Link
Valerio October 15, 2012, 6:41 pm
Hi I tryed your hint, but I have got some erros below:
root@ibeji:/etc# testparm
Load smb config files from /etc/samba/smb.conf
Unknown parameter encountered: client code page
Ignoring unknown parameter client code page
Unknown parameter encountered: character set
Ignoring unknown parameter character set
Unknown parameter encountered: domain admin group
Ignoring unknown parameter domain admin group
Unknown parameter encountered: domain admin users
Ignoring unknown parameter domain admin users
Processing section [netlogon]
Processing section [home]
Processing section [publico]
Processing section [contabil]
Processing section [suporte]
Processing section [tmp]
Loaded services file OK.
Server role: ROLE_DOMAIN_PDC
Press enter to see a dump of your service definitions
Reply Link
Sequoia December 18, 2012, 5:05 pm
You should really change this article to either
a) use the -a switch in the first example or
b) add a BIG RED WARNING that the command you give will REMOVE THE USER FROM ALL CURRENT GROUPS
This comes up #1 on google for linux add user to group and I suspect Im not the only one who completely screwed up their user by running the command you
have listed here to add a user to a group
Perhaps the article should be titled How to remove a user from all groups and add them to a new group
Reply Link
Subrat N January 10, 2013, 5:52 pm
Hi Geeks,
How can I add multiple users into a group at a time without removing the old users belongs to that particular group.
I have tried the following command
#gpasswd -M user1,user2,user3 group_name
But, the thing is that, after adding these users, the previous users belongs to this group being removed.
I want the previous users to be exist.
Please, help..
Thanks in advance ..
Reply Link
Luis Mompo Handen January 22, 2013, 1:35 pm
I built a bash script to add multiple users from a csv-file to an existing group without creating a home dir. The passwords in csv-file are clear text.
http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-linux-add-user-to-group/

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#!/bin/bash
FILE=/root/test.csv
cat $FILE | while read line; do
USER=$(echo $line | awk -F\; '{print $1}')
PASS_TMP=$(echo $line | awk -F\; '{print $2}' | sed 's/\ //g')
useradd -M -G cvs_usr $USER
echo $USER:$PASS_TMP | chpasswd
done

Reply Link
Landis January 27, 2013, 7:30 pm
In SuSE linux, there is No -a (this article states that the -a retains existing groups and adds new group -G), but in openSuSE 12.2 at least, there is no -a
option to usermod, it keeps existing groups, by default i guess
# usermod -G GroupName UserName
eg,
# id lunar
uid=1002(lunar) gid=100(users) groups=100(users)
# usermod -G sshd lunar
# id lunar
uid=1002(lunar) gid=100(users) groups=100(users),102(sshd)
Landis.
Reply Link
Vaibhav Gupta January 31, 2013, 3:09 pm
Hi ,
I have built a x86 rootfs using buildroot with both ifuse , imobiledevice ,usbmuxd . i did chroot ( directory :/var/prj_ca/) to the generated filesystem and mounted the
following
mount bind /dev /var/prj_ca/dev
mount bind /dev/pts /var/prj_ca/dev/pts
mount bind /dev/fuse /var/prj_ca/dev/fuse
mount bind /proc /var/prj_ca/proc
mount bind /sys /var/prj_ca/sys
mount bind /media /var/prj_ca/media
when i run .
lsusb -v | grep -i iSerial i am getting the IPOD serial id but .
ifuse is failing with following error.
ifuse /tmp/apple_inc._ipod_b067d003ed1b22a9fffa47e3654a00e6386a6c9a/
usbmuxd_get_device_list: error opening socket!
No device found, is it connected?
If it is make sure that your user has permissions to access the raw usb device.
If youre still having issues try unplugging the device and reconnecting it.
I am stuck can u please help.
Reply Link
Muhammad Usman Majeed April 22, 2013, 7:46 am
# usermod -a -G ftp tony
what did the -a switch do?
Regards
Reply Link
prashanth July 12, 2013, 12:35 pm
is there any way to add multiple users to a existing group with disturbing or deleting existing users in that group
Reply Link
George Huebschman July 16, 2013, 5:49 pm
Thanks,
A very clear thorough answer to the question!
When you have a choice, spend your money where youd prefer to work if you had NO choice.
Reply Link
bb November 7, 2013, 1:52 pm
adduser not useradd
Reply Link
Jose December 31, 2013, 10:24 pm
Excellent bro !, Im using fedora and this is very usefull for HTTPD directories !
Reply Link
Golandaj S February 5, 2014, 6:45 am
http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-linux-add-user-to-group/

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Howto: Linux Add User To Group

adduser account
Reply Link
Golandaj Saddam February 5, 2014, 6:47 am
groupadd
Reply Link
Naveen Sharma April 25, 2014, 12:45 pm
I got this question lately in an interview.
One User ID can belong to maximum how many secondary groups.?
Is there a definite no?
Reply Link
JET April 25, 2014, 11:45 pm
The format of this post took out an important part of the commands. PLEASE DISREGARD ABOVE. Here is an ammended post:
A simple man usermod will provide the options available. The -A option does not remove any groups, it only adds. For adding a user to a group, MY preferred
method is:
usermod username -A group
If you wish to add user to a list of groups, you may use a comma as delimiter, as in:
usermod username -A group1,group2,group3
The -G option is not preferred in my opinion, it is used to specify all groups to which the user will belong to, and has the ability to REMOVE a user from unspecified
groups. As many have pointed out, the ability to remove a user from groups can have nasty results if not carefully used.
So, just use the -A option to add your existing users to existing groups, and you should be all set. Good luck!
Reply Link
Extra December 18, 2014, 10:51 am
Good point Jet! Thank You!
Reply Link
raja May 19, 2014, 2:45 am
i am create the create to the roup bdba an user add but he was not add to the usermod command.
usermod -u 1000 -g dba -d |d01|oracle
Reply Link
lliseil January 1, 2015, 5:26 pm
# Posts original command (does not work):
useradd -G GROUP USER
useradd: user 'USER' already exists

# Working command:
gpasswd -a USER GROUP
Adding user USER to group GROUP

# Help:
gpasswd -h
Usage: gpasswd [option] GROUP
Options:
-a, --add USER
-d, --delete USER

add USER to GROUP

remove USER from GROUP[/code]

Arch linux here.

Reply Link
pandiyan January 3, 2015, 12:10 pm
thanks friends..
Reply Link
Craig R Morton January 13, 2015, 3:33 pm
Excellent, thank you.
Reply Link
Harry Hinson likes erica February 23, 2015, 12:00 pm
complete noob with linux here
what are the actual groups that you can add users to?

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i know theres the users group for standard users but what else is there? can i add a user as a sysadmin with full control over the system? or is that the same as
logging in as root?
i also understand its apperently a bad idea to login as root into KDE but why?
sorry, like i said, complete noob. just installed yesterday.
oh, and also, even though i realize this isnt the right place to ask this, i have no idea where else to ask and ive been seraching for this for hours how do you
mount a new hard drive? theres plenty of info telling how to mount a cdrom or a floppy drive, or even a usb thumb drive, but NOWHERE does anything or anyone
say how to mount a simple hard drive. is it not possible to add an additional hard drive? i cant believe that that would be impossible, so theres got to be a way.
Reply Link
harry hindson February 24, 2015, 2:25 pm
I promise I do fancy her no joke
Reply Link
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