USERDEL(8)

NAME
userdel - delete a user account and related files

SYNOPSIS

userdel [options] LOGIN

DESCRIPTION

userdel is a low level utility for removing users. On Debian, administrators should usually use deluser(8) instead.

The userdel command modifies the system account files, deleting all entries that refer to the user name LOGIN. The named user must exist.

OPTIONS

The options which apply to the userdel command are:

-f, --force
    This option forces the removal of the user account, even if the user is still logged in. It also forces userdel to remove the user's home directory and mail spool, even if another user uses the same home directory or if the mail spool is not owned by the specified user. If USERGROUPS_ENAB is defined to yes in /etc/login.defs and if a group exists with the same name as the deleted user, then this group will be removed, even if it is still the primary group of another user.

    Note: This option is dangerous and may leave your system in an inconsistent state.

-h, --help
    Display help message and exit.

-r, --remove
    Files in the user's home directory will be removed along with the home directory itself and the user's mail spool. Files located in other file systems will have to be searched for and deleted manually.

    The mail spool is defined by the MAIL_DIR variable in the login.defs file.

CONFIGURATION

The following configuration variables in /etc/login.defs change the behavior of this tool:

MAIL_DIR (string)
    The mail spool directory. This is needed to manipulate the mailbox when its corresponding user account is modified or deleted. If not specified, a compile-time default is used.

MAIL_FILE (string)
    Defines the location of the users mail spool files relatively to their home directory.

The MAIL_DIR and MAIL_FILE variables are used by useradd, usermod, and userdel to create, move, or delete the user's mail spool.

MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP (number)
    Maximum members per group entry. When the maximum is reached, a new group entry (line) is started in /etc/group (with the same name, same password, and same GID).

    The default value is 0, meaning that there are no limits in the number of members in a group.

    This feature (split group) permits to limit the length of lines in the group file. This is useful to make sure that lines for NIS groups are not larger than 1024 characters.

    If you need to enforce such limit, you can use 25.

    Note: split groups may not be supported by all tools (even in the Shadow toolsuite. You should not use this variable unless you really need it.

USERDEL_CMD (string)
    If defined, this command is run when removing a user. It should remove any at/cron/print jobs etc. owned by the user to be removed (passed as the first argument).

USERGROUPS_ENAB (boolean)

FILES

/etc/group
    Group account information.

/etc/login.defs
    Shadow password suite configuration.

/etc/passwd
    User account information.

/etc/shadow
    Secure user account information.

EXIT VALUES

The userdel command exits with the following values:

0
    success

1
    can't update password file

2
    invalid command syntax

6
    specified user doesn't exist

8
    user currently logged in

10
    can't update group file

12
    can't remove home directory

CAVEATS

userdel will not allow you to remove an account if the user is currently logged in. You must kill any running processes which belong to an account that you are deleting.

You may not remove any NIS attributes on a NIS client. This must be performed on the NIS server.

If USERGROUPS_ENAB is defined to yes in /etc/login.defs, userdel will delete the group with the same name as the user. To avoid inconsistencies in the passwd and group databases, userdel will check that this group is not used as a primary group for another user, and will just warn without deleting the user otherwise. The -f option can force the deletion of this group.

SEE ALSO

chfn(1), chsh(1), passwd(1), login.defs(5), gpasswd(8), groupadd(8), groupdel(8), groupmod(8), useradd(8), usermod(8).