USERDEL(8) System Management Commands USERDEL(8)NAMEuserdel - Delete a user account and related files
SYNOPSISuserdel [-f] [-r] login_name
DESCRIPTION
The userdel command modifies the system account files, deleting all
entries that refer to login_name. The named user must exist.
OPTIONS
The options which apply to the userdel command are:
-f This option forces the removal of the user, even if she is still
logged in. It also forces userdel to remove the user's home
directory or her 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 let your system in an
inconsistent state.
-r 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.
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
CAVEATSuserdel 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 ALSOchfn(1), chsh(1), passwd(1), login.defs(5), gpasswd(8), groupadd(8),
groupdel(8), groupmod(8), useradd(8), usermod(8).
System Management Commands 11/05/2005 USERDEL(8)