DELUSER(8) DELUSER(8)
NAME
deluser, delgroup - remove a user or group from the system
SYNOPSIS
deluser [options] [--remove-home] [--home DIR] [--remove-all-files]
[--backup] [--backup-to] 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 del-
group 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. If the --home option is given, deluser
will only remove the user if the directory given to the --home option
matches the user's real home directory.
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 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 setup.
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: If any users have the group to be removed as primary group the
group cannot be removed.
If the option --only-if-empty is given, the group won't be removed if
it has any members left.
Remove an user from a specific group
If called with two non-option arguments, deluser will remove an user
from a specific group.
OPTIONS
--conf FILE
Use FILE instead of /etc/deluser.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 user/groups. Additionally, if
the user does not exist, no error value is returned. This option
is mainly for use in Debian package maintainer scripts.
--version
Display version and copyright information.
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. This manpage and the deluser program is based on adduser which
is:
Copyright (C) 1997, 1998, 1999 Guy Maor.
Copyright (C) 1995 Ted Hajek, with a great deal borrowed from the orig-
inal 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.
Debian GNU/Linux Version 3.63 DELUSER(8)
Huschi als Linux-Admin