Important Files

# /etc/passwd --> it contains all users general information. such as user id, gid, shell, home
directory etc.

# /etc/passwd- --> this is backup file of /etc/passwd

# /etc/shadow --> It contains all users password information. such as encrypted password,
password expiry, account expiry, warning period etc..

# /etc/shadow- --> This is backup file of /etc/shadow

# /etc/group --> It contains all groups general information. such as group id, group members list.

# /etc/group- --> This is backup file of /etc/group

# /etc/gshadow --> It contails all groups password information. such as encrypted password,
group admin, group members list.

# /etc/gshadow- --> This is backup file of /etc/gshadow

# /etc/default/useradd --> THis is the default user administration configuration file. you can
specify shell, skel, home directory, mail etc...

[root@localhost ~]# cat /etc/default/useradd

# useradd defaults file

GROUP=100

HOME=/home

INACTIVE=-1

EXPIRE=

SHELL=/bin/bash

SKEL=/etc/skel

CREATE_MAIL_SPOOL=yes

# /etc/login.defs --> This is main configuration file for user administration, group adminitration,
password management.

[root@localhost ~]# cat /etc/login.defs

#
# Please note that the parameters in this configuration file control the

# behavior of the tools from the shadow-utils component. None of these

# tools uses the PAM mechanism, and the utilities that use PAM (such as the

# passwd command) should therefore be configured elsewhere. Refer to

# /etc/pam.d/system-auth for more information.

# *REQUIRED*

# Directory where mailboxes reside, _or_ name of file, relative to the

# home directory. If you _do_ define both, MAIL_DIR takes precedence.

# QMAIL_DIR is for Qmail

#QMAIL_DIR Maildir

MAIL_DIR /var/spool/mail

#MAIL_FILE .mail

# Default initial "umask" value used by login(1) on non-PAM enabled systems.

# Default "umask" value for pam_umask(8) on PAM enabled systems.

# UMASK is also used by useradd(8) and newusers(8) to set the mode for new

# home directories if HOME_MODE is not set.

# 022 is the default value, but 027, or even 077, could be considered

# for increased privacy. There is no One True Answer here: each sysadmin

# must make up their mind.

UMASK 022

# HOME_MODE is used by useradd(8) and newusers(8) to set the mode for new

# home directories.
# If HOME_MODE is not set, the value of UMASK is used to create the mode.

HOME_MODE 0700

# Password aging controls:

# PASS_MAX_DAYS Maximum number of days a password may be used.

# PASS_MIN_DAYS Minimum number of days allowed between password changes.

# PASS_MIN_LEN Minimum acceptable password length.

# PASS_WARN_AGE Number of days warning given before a password expires.

PASS_MAX_DAYS 99999

PASS_MIN_DAYS 0

PASS_MIN_LEN 5

PASS_WARN_AGE 7

# Min/max values for automatic uid selection in useradd

UID_MIN 1000

UID_MAX 60000

# System accounts

SYS_UID_MIN 201

SYS_UID_MAX 999

# Min/max values for automatic gid selection in groupadd

#
GID_MIN 1000

GID_MAX 60000

# System accounts

SYS_GID_MIN 201

SYS_GID_MAX 999

# 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).

#USERDEL_CMD /usr/sbin/userdel_local

# If useradd should create home directories for users by default

# On RH systems, we do. This option is overridden with the -m flag on

# useradd command line.

CREATE_HOME yes

# This enables userdel to remove user groups if no members exist.

USERGROUPS_ENAB yes

# Use SHA512 to encrypt password.

ENCRYPT_METHOD SHA512
# /etc/skel/ --> This is skeleton directory this provides user login program, user profile program ,
logout program

.bashrc --> this is local login program for user

.bash_profile --> This is local profile program for user

.bash_logout --> This is local logout program for user

/etc/bashrc --> This is the global login program

[root@localhost ~]# cat /etc/bashrc

# /etc/bashrc

# System wide functions and aliases

# Environment stuff goes in /etc/profile

# It's NOT a good idea to change this file unless you know what you

# are doing. It's much better to create a custom.sh shell script in

# /etc/profile.d/ to make custom changes to your environment, as this

# will prevent the need for merging in future updates.

# Prevent doublesourcing

if [ -z "$BASHRCSOURCED" ]; then

BASHRCSOURCED="Y"

# are we an interactive shell?

if [ "$PS1" ]; then

if [ -z "$PROMPT_COMMAND" ]; then

case $TERM in

xterm*|vte*)
 if [ -e /etc/sysconfig/bash-prompt-xterm ]; then

PROMPT_COMMAND=/etc/sysconfig/bash-prompt-xterm

elif [ "${VTE_VERSION:-0}" -ge 3405 ]; then

PROMPT_COMMAND="__vte_prompt_command"

else

PROMPT_COMMAND='printf "\033]0;%s@%s:%s\007" "${USER}" "${HOSTNAME%%.*}"

fi

;;

screen*)

if [ -e /etc/sysconfig/bash-prompt-screen ]; then

PROMPT_COMMAND=/etc/sysconfig/bash-prompt-screen

else

PROMPT_COMMAND='printf "\033k%s@%s:%s\033\\" "${USER}" "${HOSTNAME%%.*}"

fi

;;

*)

[ -e /etc/sysconfig/bash-prompt-default ] && PROMPT_COMMAND=/etc/sysconfig/bash-

;;

esac

fi

# Turn on parallel history

shopt -s histappend

history -a

# Turn on checkwinsize

shopt -s checkwinsize

[ "$PS1" = "\\s-\\v\\\$ " ] && PS1="[\u@\h \W]\\$ "

# and console windows

# If you want to do so, just add e.g.

# if [ "$PS1" ]; then

# PS1="[\u@\h:\l \W]\\$ "

# fi

# to your custom modification shell script in /etc/profile.d/ directory

fi

if ! shopt -q login_shell ; then # We're not a login shell

# Need to redefine pathmunge, it gets undefined at the end of /etc/profile

pathmunge () {

case ":${PATH}:" in

*:"$1":*)

;;

*)

if [ "$2" = "after" ] ; then

PATH=$PATH:$1

else

PATH=$1:$PATH

fi

esac

# By default, we want umask to get set. This sets it for non-login shell.

# Current threshold for system reserved uid/gids is 200

# You could check uidgid reservation validity in

if [ $UID -gt 199 ] && [ "`/usr/bin/id -gn`" = "`/usr/bin/id -un`" ]; then

umask 002

else

umask 022

fi

SHELL=/bin/bash

# Only display echos from profile.d scripts if we are no login shell

# and interactive - otherwise just process them to set envvars

for i in /etc/profile.d/*.sh; do

if [ -r "$i" ]; then

if [ "$PS1" ]; then

. "$i"

else

. "$i" >/dev/null

fi

fi

done

unset i

unset -f pathmunge

fi

fi

# vim:ts=4:sw=4

[root@localhost ~]#
# /var/spool/mail/<username> --> Local users mail box

# /root --> This is root user's home directory

# /home/<user name> --> This is local users home directory

# eg: /home/jack

# /home --> base directory

# jack --> home directory

# User Administration
cmd: useradd or # adduser

it edits /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/group , /etc/gshadow

create a home directory for new users. in /home directory

sets permission and ownership to home directory.

syntax:

# useradd <username>

# adduser <username>

# eg:

[root@localhost ~]# useradd jack

[root@localhost ~]# adduser jerry

[root@localhost ~]# cat /etc/passwd

jack:x:1004:1005::/home/jack:/bin/bash

jerry:x:1005:1006::/home/jerry:/bin/bash

[root@localhost ~]# tail -2 /etc/passwd

jerry:x:1005:1006::/home/jerry:/bin/bash

jerry:x:1005:1006::/home/jerry:/bin/bash
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

field1: username

field2: redirected password

field3: userid

field4: groupid

field5: comment

field6: user home ditrectory

field7: users login shell

[root@localhost ~]# tail -2 /etc/shadow

jack:!!:18900:0:99999:7:::

jerry:!!:18900:0:99999:7:::

[root@localhost ~]#

[root@localhost ~]# tail -2 /etc/group

jack:x:1005:

jerry:x:1006:

[root@localhost ~]# tail -2 /etc/gshadow

jack:!::

jerry:!::

[root@localhost ~]#
[root@localhost ~]# id jack

uid=1004(jack) gid=1005(jack) groups=1005(jack)

[root@localhost ~]# ls /home/

harry jack jerry natasha sarah student

[root@localhost ~]#

[root@localhost ~]# ls /var/spool/mail/

harry jack jerry natasha rpc sarah student

[root@localhost ~]# su - jack

[jack@servera ~]$

[jack@servera ~]$ useradd sam

useradd: Permission denied.

useradd: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

[jack@servera ~]$

[jack@servera ~]$ pwd

/home/jack

[jack@servera ~]$ touch abc

[jack@servera ~]$ ls

abc

[jack@servera ~]$

[jack@servera ~]$ ls

abc

[jack@servera ~]$ ls -a

. .. abc .bash_logout .bash_profile .bashrc .cache .mozilla

[jack@servera ~]$

[jack@servera ~]$ ls
abc

[jack@servera ~]$ exit

logout

[root@localhost ~]# ls /home/jack/

abc

[root@localhost ~]#

[root@localhost ~]# ls -ld /home/jack/

drwx------. 4 jack jack 124 Sep 30 20:49 /home/jack/