Ubuntu 14.04: New user created from command line has missing features

Question

I am trying to create a new user in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS from the bash command line. I use the following commands:

sudo useradd -c "Samwise the Brave" sam    
sudo passwd sam    
Enter new UNIX password: hello-1234    
Retype new UNIX password: hello-1234    
passwd: password updated successfully

After creating this new user, I encountered 3 issues:

1. I am not able to log into Ubuntu using user sam. Whenever I log in, I am sent back to the login screen.

2. When I look into the /etc/passwd file, I can see that there are no default shells defined for user sam:

   cat /etc/passwd | grep sam    
   sam:x:1003:1003:Samwise the Brave:/home/sam:
   

3. Sam's home folder was not created, i.e. /home/sam doesn't exist.

Any clues about what could cause all these issues?

I should note here that when I create a user using the Unity Control Center, these problems do not occur. But I would like to be able to use the command line since I have dozens of users to create.

Solution 1

First notice that it's better to use adduser and not useradd.

• What is the difference between adduser and useradd?
• https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/121071/what-does-adduser-do-that-useradd-doesnt

Now back to your command:

You should run the command in the following manner:

sudo useradd -m -c "Samwise the Brave" sam  -s /bin/bash 

man useradd

  -s, --shell SHELL
           The name of the user's login shell. The default is to leave this
           field blank, which causes the system to select the default login
           shell specified by the SHELL variable in /etc/default/useradd, or
           an empty string by default.

 -m, --create-home
           Create the user's home directory if it does not exist. The files
           and directories contained in the skeleton directory (which can be
           defined with the -k option) will be copied to the home directory.

           By default, if this option is not specified and CREATE_HOME is not
           enabled, no home directories are created.

So you miss to use -s to add your login shell and the -m to create your home.

If you want to add multiple users in the same time, it's better to use the command newusers. It'll simplify your task.

man newusers

DESCRIPTION

   The newusers command reads a file of user name and clear-text password
   pairs and uses this information to update a group of existing users or
   to create new users. Each line is in the same format as the standard
   password file (see passwd(5)) with the exceptions explained below:

   pw_name:pw_passwd:pw_uid:pw_gid:pw_gecos:pw_dir:pw_shell

Here some tutorial about newusers command:

• http://www.sanfoundry.com/newusers-command-usage-examples/
• https://opensourcewin.wordpress.com/2013/03/04/how-to-create-multiple-users-in-linux-newusers-command/

Solution 2

Create user

Create user's home directory

Define login shell

useradd -m -d /home/username username -s /bin/bash

Delete User

Deleter User's Home Directory

userdel -r username

Solution 3

Thanks everyone. With your answers I've been able to fix the problem using the following command lines.

sudo useradd -c "Samwise the Brave" -m -s /bin/bash sam
echo -e "hello-1234\nhello-1234" | passwd sam

The password is set with passwd so it is already encrypted (otherwise "hello-1234" would appear not encrypted in /etc/passwd).

Solution 4

While you are missing flags and the other answers aren't necessarily wrong, considering running adduser if you want it more comprehensive in the future. It's a prettier version of useradd. Namely it'll make a home directory by default unlike useradd. Also note when it asks for a ton of stuff, it stores that inline on the /etc/passwd file and you don't have to fill any of it out.

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Comments

[Daniel Viglione]

Why do I get "unknown option m"? I am on AWS Ubuntu instance running 14.04.