deluser(8)
NAME
deluser, delgroup - remove a user or group from the system
SYNOPSIS
deluser [options] [--force] [--remove-home] [--remove-all-files] [--backup] [--backup-to DIR] user deluser --group [options] group delgroup [options] [--only-if-empty] group deluser [options] user group COMMON OPTIONS [--quiet] [--system] [--help] [--version] [--conf FILE]
DESCRIPTION
deluser and delgroup remove users and groups from the system according to command line options and configuration information in /etc/deluser.conf and /etc/adduser.conf. They are friendlier front ends to the userdel and groupdel programs, removing the home directory as option or even all files on the system owned by the user to be removed, running a custom script, and other features. deluser and delgroup can be run in one of three modes: Remove a normal user If called with one non-option argument and without the --group option, deluser will remove a normal user. By default, deluser will remove the user without removing the home directory, the mail spool or any other files on the system owned by the user. Removing the home directory and mail spool can be achieved using the --remove-home option. The --remove-all-files option removes all files on the system owned by the user. Note that if you activate both options --remove-home will have no effect because all files including the home directory and mail spool are already covered by the --remove-all-files option. If you want to backup all files before deleting them you can activate the --backup option which will create a file username.tar(.gz|.bz2) in the directory specified by the --backup-to option (defaulting to the current working directory). Both the remove and backup options can also be activated for default in the configuration file /etc/deluser.conf. See deluser.conf(5) for details. If you want to remove the root account (uid 0), then use the --force parameter; this may prevent to remove the root user by accident. If the file /usr/local/sbin/deluser.local exists, it will be executed after the user account has been removed in order to do any local cleanup. The arguments passed to deluser.local are: username uid gid home-directory Remove a group If deluser is called with the --group option, or delgroup is called, a group will be removed. Warning: The primary group of an existing user cannot be removed. If the option --only-if-empty is given, the group won't be removed if it has any members left. Remove a user from a specific group If called with two non-option arguments, deluser will remove a user from a specific group.
OPTIONS
--conf FILE
Use FILE instead of the default files /etc/deluser.conf and
/etc/adduser.conf
--group
Remove a group. This is the default action if the program is
invoked as delgroup.
--help Display brief instructions.
--quiet
Suppress progress messages.
--system
Only delete if user/group is a system user/group. This avoids
accidentally deleting non-system users/groups. Additionally, if
the user does not exist, no error value is returned. This option
is mainly for use in Debian package maintainer scripts.
--backup
Backup all files contained in the userhome and the mailspool-
file to a file named /$user.tar.bz2 or /$user.tar.gz.
--backup-to
Place the backup files not in / but in the directory specified
by this parameter. This implicitly sets --backup also.
--remove-home
Remove the home directory of the user and its mailspool. If
--backup is specified, the files are deleted after having
performed the backup.
--remove-all-files
Remove all files from the system owned by this user. Note:
--remove-home does not have an effect any more. If --backup is
specified, the files are deleted after having performed the
backup.
--version
Display version and copyright information.
RETURN VALUE
0 The action was successfully executed.
1 The user to delete was not a system account. No action was
performed.
2 There is no such user. No action was performed.
3 There is no such group. No action was performed.
4 Internal error. No action was performed.
5 The group to delete is not empty. No action was performed.
6 The user does not belong to the specified group. No action was
performed.
7 You cannot remove a user from its primary group. No action was
performed.
8 The required perl-package 'perl modules' is not installed. This
package is required to perform the requested actions. No action
was performed.
9 For removing the root account the parameter "--force" is
required. No action was performed.
FILES
/etc/deluser.conf
SEE ALSO
deluser.conf(5), adduser(8), userdel(8), groupdel(8)
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2000 Roland Bauerschmidt. Modifications (C) 2004 Marc Haber and Joerg Hoh. This manpage and the deluser program are based on adduser which is: Copyright (C) 1997, 1998, 1999 Guy Maor. Copyright (C) 1995 Ted Hajek, with a great deal borrowed from the original Debian adduser Copyright (C) 1994 Ian Murdock. deluser is free software; see the GNU General Public Licence version 2 or later for copying conditions. There is no warranty.
Opportunity
Personal Opportunity - Free software gives you access to billions of dollars of software at no cost. Use this software for your business, personal use or to develop a profitable skill. Access to source code provides access to a level of capabilities/information that companies protect though copyrights. Open source is a core component of the Internet and it is available to you. Leverage the billions of dollars in resources and capabilities to build a career, establish a business or change the world. The potential is endless for those who understand the opportunity.
Business Opportunity - Goldman Sachs, IBM and countless large corporations are leveraging open source to reduce costs, develop products and increase their bottom lines. Learn what these companies know about open source and how open source can give you the advantage.
Free Software
Free Software provides computer programs and capabilities at no cost but more importantly, it provides the freedom to run, edit, contribute to, and share the software. The importance of free software is a matter of access, not price. Software at no cost is a benefit but ownership rights to the software and source code is far more significant.
Free Office Software - The Libre Office suite provides top desktop productivity tools for free. This includes, a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation engine, drawing and flowcharting, database and math applications. Libre Office is available for Linux or Windows.
Free Books
The Free Books Library is a collection of thousands of the most popular public domain books in an online readable format. The collection includes great classical literature and more recent works where the U.S. copyright has expired. These books are yours to read and use without restrictions.
Source Code - Want to change a program or know how it works? Open Source provides the source code for its programs so that anyone can use, modify or learn how to write those programs themselves. Visit the GNU source code repositories to download the source.
Education
Study at Harvard, Stanford or MIT - Open edX provides free online courses from Harvard, MIT, Columbia, UC Berkeley and other top Universities. Hundreds of courses for almost all major subjects and course levels. Open edx also offers some paid courses and selected certifications.
Linux Manual Pages - A man or manual page is a form of software documentation found on Linux/Unix operating systems. Topics covered include computer programs (including library and system calls), formal standards and conventions, and even abstract concepts.
