Man page 8 : newusers

newusers - update and create new users in batch

newusers [options new_users]

The newusers command reads a file of user name and clear-text password pairs and uses this information to update a group of existing users or to create new users. Each line is in the same format as the standard password file (see passwd(5)) with the exceptions explained below:

pw_name:pw_passwd:pw_uid:pw_gid:pw_gecos:pw_dir:pw_shell

pw_name
    This is the name of the user.

It can be the name of a new user or the name of an existing user (or an user created before by newusers). In case of an existing user, the userAqs information will be changed, otherwise a new user will be created.

pw_passwd
    This field will be encrypted and used as the new value of the encrypted password.

pw_uid
    This field is used to define the UID of the user.

If the field is empty, an new (unused) UID will be defined automatically by newusers.

If this field contains a number, this number will be used as the UID.

If this field contains the name of an existing user (or the name of an user created before by newusers), the UID of the specified user will be used.

If the UID of an existing user is changed, the files ownership of the userAqs file should be fixed manually.

pw_gid
    This field is used to define the primary group ID for the user.

If this field contains the name of an existing group (or a group created before by newusers), the GID of this group will be used as the primary group ID for the user.

If this field is a number, this number will be used as the primary group ID of the user. If no groups exist with this GID, a new group will be created with this GID, and the name of the user.

If this field is empty, a new group will be created with the name of the user and a GID will be automatically defined by newusers to be used as the primary group ID for the user and as the GID for the new group.

If this field contains the name of a group which does not exist (and was not created earlier wbefore by newusers), a new group will be created with the specified name and a GID will be automatically defined by newusers to be used as the primary group ID for the user and Gs the ID for the new group.

pw_gecos
    This field is copied in the GECOS field of the user.

pw_dir
    This field is used to define the home directory of the user.

If this field does not specify an existing directory, the specified directory is created, with ownership set to the user being created or updated and its primary group.

If the home directory of an existing user is changed, newusers does not move or copy the content of the old directory to the new location. This should be done manually.

pw_shell
    This field defines the shell of the user. No checks are performed on this field.

newusers first tries to create or change all the specified users, and then write these changes to the user or group databases. If an error occurs (except in the final writes to the databases), no changes are committed to the databases.

During this first pass, users are created with a locked password (and passwords are not changed for the users which are not created). A second pass is used to update the passwords using PAM. Failures to update a password are reported, but will not stop the other password updates.

This command is intended to be used in a large system environment where many accounts are updated at a single time.

The options which apply to the newusers command are:

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

-r, --system
    Create a system account.

System users will be created with no aging information in /etc/shadow, and their numeric identifiers are chosen in the SYS_UID_MIN-SYS_UID_MAX range, defined in login.defs, instead of UID_MIN-UID_MAX (and their GID counterparts for the creation of groups).

The input file must be protected since it contains unencrypted passwords.

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

GID_MAX (number), GID_MIN (number)
    Range of group IDs used for the creation of regular groups by useradd, groupadd, or newusers.

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.

PASS_MAX_DAYS (number)
    The maximum number of days a password may be used. If the password is older than this, a password change will be forced. If not specified, -1 will be assumed (which disables the restriction).

PASS_MIN_DAYS (number)
    The minimum number of days allowed between password changes. Any password changes attempted sooner than this will be rejected. If not specified, -1 will be assumed (which disables the restriction).

PASS_WARN_AGE (number)
    The number of days warning given before a password expires. A zero means warning is given only upon the day of expiration, a negative value means no warning is given. If not specified, no warning will be provided.

SYS_GID_MAX (number), SYS_GID_MIN (number)
    Range of group IDs used for the creation of system groups by useradd, groupadd, or newusers.

SYS_UID_MAX (number), SYS_UID_MIN (number)
    Range of user IDs used for the creation of system users by useradd or newusers.

UID_MAX (number), UID_MIN (number)
    Range of user IDs used for the creation of regular users by useradd or newusers.

UMASK (number)
    The file mode creation mask is initialized to this value. If not specified, the mask will be initialized to 022.

useradd and newusers use this mask to set the mode of the home directory they create

It is also used by pam_umask as the default umask value.

/etc/passwd
    User account information.

/etc/shadow
    Secure user account information.

/etc/group
    Group account information.

/etc/gshadow
    Secure group account information.

/etc/login.defs
    Shadow password suite configuration.

/etc/pam.d/newusers
    PAM configuration for newusers.

login.defs(5), passwd(1), useradd(8).