How can I delete a Mac OS X Snow Leopard user account from Command Line?

Question

I need to create a script to delete Mac OS X users automatically from command line, not from GUI, just in Terminal, but I haven't found how to do it in Snow Leopard.

Solution

You want to use the program dscl to manage users on Mac OS X. Mac OS X uses it's own directory for users and groups and so the utilities to manage users and groups are exclusive to Mac OS X.

The removal of a user takes several steps:

1. User's folder/files, a fairly standard rm can remove their user folder by default found in /Users/
2. The User's membership in groups.
3. The user's primary group
4. Lastly, the user's actual account along with their password hash.

The University of Utah Mac Managers group submitted an excellent script to CodeSnippets that does all the checks and work you're looking for.

#!/bin/bash

# cf. http://www.macos.utah.edu/documentation/authentication/dscl.html

if [[ "$(/usr/bin/whoami)" != "root" ]]; then printf '\nMust be run as root!\n\n'; exit 1; fi

OPATH=$PATH
export PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin

OIFS=$IFS
export IFS=$' \t\n'

declare sudo=/usr/bin/sudo

printf "\e[1mDelete user account\e[m: "
read user

if [[ -z "$user" ]]; then printf '\nNo user specified! Please, try again!\n\n'; exit 1; fi

# make sure the user exists
usertest="$(/usr/bin/dscl . -search /Users name "$user" 2>/dev/null)"

if [[ -z "$usertest" ]]; then printf "\nUser does not exist: $user\n\n"; exit 1; fi 


# get user's group memberships
groups_of_user="$(/usr/bin/id -Gn $user)"

if [[ $? -eq 0 ]] && [[ -n "$(/usr/bin/dscl . -search /Groups GroupMembership "$user")" ]]; then 
   # delete the user's group memberships
   for group in $groups_of_user; do
      $sudo /usr/bin/dscl . -delete "/Groups/$group"  GroupMembership "$user"
      #$sudo /usr/sbin/dseditgroup -o edit -d "$user" -t user "$group"           
   done
fi


# delete the user's primary group
if [[ -n "$(/usr/bin/dscl . -search /Groups name "$user")" ]]; then
   $sudo /usr/sbin/dseditgroup -o delete "$user"
fi

# if the user's primary group has not been deleted ...
if [[ -n "$(/usr/bin/dscl . -search /Groups name "$user")" ]]; then
printf "
   \e[1mWarning\e[m:
   The group memberships of the user \e[1m$user\e[m have been deleted\x21
   groups_of_user: $groups_of_user
   The user's primary group \e[1m$user\e[m, however, has not been deleted\x21
   Please, try again\x21
   Exiting ...\n
"
  exit 1
fi


# find the GeneratedUID of the user and remove the password hash file 
# from /private/var/db/shadow/hash/<GeneratedUID>
# sudo ls -a /private/var/db/shadow/hash
# sudo ls -l /private/var/db/shadow/hash/<GeneratedUID>

guid="$(/usr/bin/dscl . -read "/Users/$user" GeneratedUID | /usr/bin/awk '{print $NF;}')"

if [[ -f "/private/var/db/shadow/hash/$guid" ]]; then
   $sudo /bin/rm -f /private/var/db/shadow/hash/$guid
fi


# delete the user
$sudo /usr/bin/dscl . -delete "/Users/$user"

# make a backup
if [[ -d "/Users/$user" ]]; then
   $sudo /usr/bin/ditto -rsrc -c -k "/Users/$user" "/Users/${user}-archive-$(/bin/date).zip"
fi

# remove the user's home directory
if [[ -d "/Users/$user" ]]; then
   $sudo /bin/rm -rf "/Users/$user"
fi

export IFS=$OIFS
export PATH=$OPATH

exit 0

Comments

[Admin]

Solution should also work on Lion

[Raffi Khatchadourian]

Link it broken but I just copy and pasted the script.