Ubuntu Manpage: /etc/adduser.conf - configuration file for adduser(8) and addgroup(8)

NAME

       /etc/adduser.conf - configuration file for adduser(8) and addgroup(8)

DESCRIPTION

The file /etc/adduser.conf contains defaults for the programs adduser(8), addgroup(8), deluser(8) and
delgroup(8). Each line holds a single value pair in the form option = value. Double or single quotes
are allowed around the value, as is whitespace around the equals sign. Comment lines must have a hash
sign (#) in the first column.

The valid configuration options are:

STDERRMSGLEVEL , STDOUTMSGLEVEL , and LOGMSGLEVEL
Minimum priority for messages logged to syslog/journal and the console, respectively. See LOGGING
in adduser(8). Defaults to warn for STDOUTMSGLEVEL and STDERRMSGLEVEL and info for LOGMSGLEVEL.

ADD_EXTRA_GROUPS
Setting this to something other than 0 will cause adduser to add newly created non-system users to
the list of groups defined by EXTRA_GROUPS (below). Defaults to 0.

DIR_MODE
The permissions mode for home directories of non-system users that are created by adduser(8).
Defaults to 0700. Note that there are potential configurations (such as ~/user web services, or
in-home mail delivery) which will require changes to the default. See also SYS_DIR_MODE.

DHOME The directory in which new home directories should be created. Defaults to /home.

DSHELL The login shell to be used for all new users. Defaults to /bin/bash.

EXTRA_GROUPS
This is the space-separated list of groups that new non-system users will be added to. Defaults
to users.

FIRST_SYSTEM_GID and LAST_SYSTEM_GID
specify an inclusive range of GIDs from which GIDs for system groups can be dynamically allocated.
Defaults to 100 - 999.

FIRST_GID and LAST_GID
specify an inclusive range of GIDs from which GIDs for non-system groups can be dynamically
allocated. Defaults to 1000 - 59999.

FIRST_SYSTEM_UID and LAST_SYSTEM_UID
specify an inclusive range of UIDs from which UIDs for system users can be dynamically allocated.
Defaults to 100 - 999. Please note that system software, such as the users allocated by the base-
passwd package, may assume that UIDs less than 100 are unallocated.

FIRST_UID and LAST_UID
specify an inclusive range of UIDs from which UIDs for non-system users can be dynamically
allocated. Defaults to 1000 - 59999.

GID_POOL
See UID_POOL.

GROUPHOMES
If this is set to yes, the home directories will be created as /home/groupname/user. Defaults to
no. This option is deprecated and will be removed.

LAST_SYSTEM_GID
LAST_GID
LAST_SYSTEM_UID
LAST_UID
See the FIRST_ variants of the option.

LETTERHOMES
If this is set to yes, then the home directories created will have an extra directory inserted
which is the first letter of the loginname. For example: /home/u/user. Defaults to no. This
option is deprecated and will be removed.

NAME_REGEX
Non-system user- and groupnames are checked against this regular expression. If the name doesn't
match this regexp, user and group creation in adduser(8) is refused unless --allow-bad-names is
set. With --allow-bad-names set, weaker checks are performed. Defaults to the most conservative
^[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9_-]*\$?$. See SYS_NAME_REGEX and Valid names, below, for more information.

QUOTAUSER
If set to a nonempty value, new users will have quotas copied from that user using edquota -p
QUOTAUSER newuser. Defaults to the empty string.

RESERVE_UID_POOL and RESERVE_GID_POOL
Controls whether the UID and GID values that are listed in the pool files are truly reserved. See
UID AND GID POOLS in the NOTES section. Defaults to yes.

SETGID_HOME
If this is set to yes, then home directories for users with their own group (USERGROUPS = yes)
will have the set-group-ID bit set. Note that this feature is deprecated and will be removed in a
future version of adduser(8). Please use DIR_MODE instead. Defaults to no.

SKEL The directory from which skeletal user configuration files will be copied. Defaults to /etc/skel.

SKEL_IGNORE_REGEX
When populating the newly created home directory of a non-system user, files in SKEL matching this
regex are not copied. Defaults to to (.(dpkg|ucf)-(old|new|dist)$), the regular expression
matching files left over from unmerged config files.

SYS_DIR_MODE
The permissions mode for home directories of system users that are created by adduser(8).
Defaults to 0755. Note that changing the default permissions for system users may cause some
packages to behave unreliably, if the program relies on the default setting. See also DIR_MODE.

SYS_NAME_REGEX
System user- and groupnames are checked against this regular expression. If the name doesn't
match this regexp, system user and group creation in adduser is refused unless --allow-bad-names
is set. With --allow-bad-names set, weaker checks are performed. Defaults to the most
conservative ^[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_-]*\$?$. See NAME_REGEX, above, and Valid names, below, for
more information.

UID_POOL and GID_POOL
specify a file or a directory containing UID and GID pool files. See UID AND GID POOLS in the
NOTES section. Both default to empty.

USERGROUPS
Specify whether each created non-system user will be given their own group to use. Defaults to
yes.

USERS_GID and USERS_GROUP
Defines the groupname or GID of the group all newly-created non-system users are placed into. If
USERGROUPS is yes, the group will be added as a supplementary group; if USERGROUPS is no,, it will
be the primary group. If you don't want all your users to be in one group, set USERGROUPS=yes,
leave USERS_GROUP empty and set USERS_GID to "-1". USERS_GROUP defaults to users, which has GID
100 on all Debian systems since it's defined statically by the base-passwd package. It is a
configuration error to define both variables even if the values are consistent.

NOTES

UID AND GID POOLS
Some installations desire that a non-system account gets preconfigured properties when it is generated.
Commonly, the local admin wants to make sure that even without using a directory service, an account or a
group with a certain name has the same numeric UID/GID on all systems where it exists.

To enable this feature, define configuration variables UID_POOL (for user accounts) and/or GID_POOL (for
groups) in /etc/adduser.conf and install the respective files in the configured places. The value is
either a file or a directory. In the latter case all files named *.conf in that directory are
considered.

The file format is similar to /etc/passwd: Text lines, fields separated by a colon. The values are
username/groupname (mandatory), UID/GID (mandatory), comment field (optional, useful for user IDs only),
home directory (ditto), shell (ditto).

It is possible to use the same file/directory for UID_POOL and GID_POOL.

If an account / group is created, adduser(8) searches in all UID/GID pool files for a line matching the
name of the newly created account and uses the data found there to initialize the new account instead of
using the defaults. Settings may be overridden from the command line.

In the default configuration, UID and GID values listed in the pool will be reserved and thus not be used
by the normal UID and GID selection processes. This is usually what you'd want. With the
RESERVE_UID_POOL and RESERVE_GID_POOL configuration options, you can switch this behavior off if you want
pooled UIDs and GIDs used by regular accounts. This might cause conflicts and cause your pool UIDs and
GIDs to be used by accounts that are not in the pool.

FILES

       /etc/adduser.conf

NAME

DESCRIPTION

NOTES

FILES

SEE ALSO