Ubuntu Manpage: deluser, delgroup - remove a user or group from the system

NAME

       deluser, delgroup - remove a user or group from the system

SYNOPSIS

       deluser [--backup] [--backup-suffix str] [--backup-to dir] [--conf file] [--debug] [--remove-all-files]
               [--remove-home] [--quiet] [--verbose] [--stdoutmsglevel prio] [--stderrmsglevel prio]
               [--logmsglevel prio] user

       deluser [--system] [--backup] [--backup-suffix str] [--backup-to dir] [--conf file] [--debug]
               [--remove-all-files] [--remove-home] [--quiet] [--verbose] [--stdoutmsglevel prio]
               [--stderrmsglevel prio] [--logmsglevel prio] user

       deluser --group [--conf file] [--debug] [--only-if-empty] [--quiet] [--verbose] [--stdoutmsglevel prio]
               [--stderrmsglevel prio] [--logmsglevel prio] group

       delgroup [--system] [--conf file] [--debug] [--only-if-empty] [--quiet] [--verbose]
                [--stdoutmsglevel prio] [--stderrmsglevel prio] [--logmsglevel prio] group

       deluser [--conf file] [--debug] [--quiet] [--verbose] [--stdoutmsglevel prio] [--stderrmsglevel prio]
               [--logmsglevel prio] user group

       deluser --help

       deluser --version

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 more Debian specific front ends to the userdel and groupdel programs, which are more
distribution agnostic. deluser and delgroup can remove the home directory as option or even all files on
the system owned by the user to be removed, run a custom script, and have other features.

For a full list and explanations of all options, see the OPTIONS section.

deluser and delgroup can be run in one of three modes:

Remove a user
If called with one non-option argument and without the --group option, deluser will remove a non-system
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.

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 additional 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.

By default, the backup archive is compressed with gzip(1). To change this, the --backup-suffix option
can be set to any suffix supported by tar --auto-compress.

deluser will refuse to remove the root account.

If the --system option is given on the command line, the delete operation is actually executed only if
the user is a system user. This avoids accidentally deleting non-system users. Additionally, if the
user does not exist, no error value is returned. Debian package maintainer scripts may use this flag to
remove system users or groups while ignoring the case where the removal already occurred.

Remove a group
If deluser is called with the --group option, or delgroup is called, a group will be removed. The
primary group of an existing user cannot be removed. If the option --only-if-empty is given, the group
won't be removed if it has any members left.

The --system option adds the same functionality as for users, respectively.

Remove a user from a specific group
If called with two non-option arguments, deluser will remove a user from a specific group.

OPTIONS

Different modes of deluser allow different options. If no valid modes are listed for a option, it is
accepted in all modes.

Short versions for certain options may exist for historical reasons. They are going to stay supported,
but are removed from the documentation. Users are advised to migrate to the long version of options.

--backup
Backup all files contained in the userhome and the mailspool file to a file named username.tar.bz2
or username.tar.gz. Valid modes: deluser, deluser --system.

--backup-suffix str
Select compression algorithm for a home directory backup. Can be set to any suffix recognized by
tar --auto-compress. Defaults to .gz. Valid modes: deluser, deluser --system.

--backup-to dir
Place the backup files not in the current directory but in dir. This implicitly sets --backup
also. Defaults to the current working directory. Valid modes: deluser, deluser --system.

--conf file
Use file instead of the default files /etc/deluser.conf and /etc/adduser.conf. Multiple --conf
options may be given.

--debug
Synonymous to --stdoutmsglevel=debug. Deprecated.

--group
Remove a group. This is the default action if the program is invoked as delgroup. Valid mode:
deluser.

--help Display brief instructions.

--only-if-empty
Only remove if no members are left. Valid modes: deluser --group, delgroup.

--quiet
Synonymous to --stdoutmsglevel=warn. Deprecated.

--remove-all-files
Remove all files from the system owned by this user. Note: --remove-home does not have an effect
any more. If --backup is specified, the files are deleted after having performed the backup.
Valid modes: deluser, deluser --system.

--remove-home
Remove the home directory of the user and its mailspool. If --backup is specified, the files are
deleted after having performed the backup. Valid modes: deluser, deluser --system.

--system
Only delete if user/group is a system user/group. If the user does not exist, no error value is
returned. Valid modes: deluser, deluser --system.

--verbose
Synonymous to --stdoutmsglevel=info. Deprecated.

--stdoutmsglevel prio
--stderrmsglevel prio
--logmsglevel prio
Minimum priority for messages logged to syslog/journal and the console, respectively. Values are
trace, debug, info, warn, err, and fatal. Messages with the priority set here or higher get
printed to the respective medium. Messages printed to stderr are not repeated on stdout. That
allows the local admin to control adduser's chattiness on the console and in the log
independently, keeping probably confusing information to itself while still leaving helpful
information in the log.

--version
Display version and copyright information.

LOGGING↲

       deluser  uses  extensive  and configurable logging to tailor its verbosity to the needs and wishes of the
       system administrator.

       This works similar to adduser. See adduser(8) for all the details.

EXIT VALUES

       The exit values documented in adduser(8) also apply for deluser.

SECURITY

       deluser needs root  privileges  and  offers,  via  the  --conf  command  line  option  to  use  different
       configuration  files.   Do  not  use  sudo(8) or similar tools to give partial privileges to deluser with
       restricted command line parameters.  This  is  easy  to  circumvent  and  might  allow  users  to  obtain
       privileges they are not supposed to have.  If you want this, consider writing your own wrapper script and
       giving privileges to execute that script.

FILES

       /etc/deluser.conf Default configuration file for deluser(8) and delgroup(8)

       /usr/local/sbin/deluser.local
              Optional custom add-ons, see deluser.local(8)