userdel(1M)                                                     userdel(1M)




 NAME    [Toc]    [Back]
      userdel - delete a user login from the system

 SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]
      userdel [-r] login

 DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]
      The userdel command deletes a user login from the system by modifying
      the appropriate login related files.

      The userdel command requires the login argument.  login is the name to
      be deleted, specified as a string of printable characters.  It may not
      contain a colon (:) or a newline (\n).

    Option    [Toc]    [Back]
      The following option is available to this command:

           -r        The home directory of login is removed from the system.
                     This directory must exist.  Following the successful
                     execution of this command, none of the files and
                     directories under the home directory will be available.

                     If a user is deleted and the home directory is shared
                     by others, then this directory is not deleted even with
                     the -r option.

      In the event where a directory is shared by users of the same group
      and the owner of that directory is deleted, then the ownership of that
      directory is propagated to the next user who is sharing that
      directory.  The new owner is determined by looking at the order in
      which the users sharing this directory are added to the /etc/passwd
      file.  If there is only one user remaining then the directory is
      brought back to unshared mode by resetting the permissions to 755 from
      775.

 NETWORKING FEATURES    [Toc]    [Back]
    NIS
      This command is aware of NIS user and group entries.  Only local users
      and groups may be deleted or modified with this command.  Attempts to
      delete or modify NIS users or groups will result in an error.  NIS
      users and groups must be administered from the NIS server.  The
      userdel command may fail with the error

           login x does not exist

      (return value 6) if the user specified is an NIS user (see passwd(4)).
      The error

           Cannot modify /etc/group file, /etc/passwd was modified





 Hewlett-Packard Company            - 1 -   HP-UX 11i Version 2: August 2003






 userdel(1M)                                                     userdel(1M)




      (return value 10) is returned if a local user belongs to an NIS group
      (see group(4)).

    NFS    [Toc]    [Back]
      Errors may occur with the -r option if the affected directory is
      within an NFS mounted file system that does not allow root privileges
      across the NFS mount, and the directory or files within the directory
      do not have sufficient permissions.

 RETURN VALUE    [Toc]    [Back]
      userdel exits with one of the following values:

           0    Successful completion.

           2    Invalid command syntax.

           3    Invalid argument supplied to an option.

           6    The login to be removed does not exist.

           8    The login to be removed is in use.

           10   Cannot modify the /etc/group file, but the login was removed
                from the /etc/passwd file.

           12   Unable to remove or modify the home directory.

           13   Unable to open /etc/ptmp file or /etc/passwd file is nonexistent.


           14   /etc/passwd file or /etc/ptmp file busy.  Another command
                may be modifying the /etc/passwd file.

           17   Cannot delete entry from /etc/passwd file.

 EXAMPLES    [Toc]    [Back]
      Remove the user otto from the system:

           userdel otto

      Remove the user bob from the system and delete bob's home directory
      from the system:

           userdel -r bob

 WARNINGS    [Toc]    [Back]
      As many users may try to write the /etc/passwd file simultaneously, a
      passwd locking mechanism was deviced.  If this locking fails after
      subsequent retrying, userdel terminates.





 Hewlett-Packard Company            - 2 -   HP-UX 11i Version 2: August 2003






 userdel(1M)                                                     userdel(1M)




 FILES    [Toc]    [Back]
      /etc/shadow         Shadow Password file
      /etc/passwd         System Password file
      /etc/group          System group file
      /etc/ptmp           Lock file used when updating password file

 SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]
      passwd(1), users(1), groupadd(1M), groupdel(1M), groupmod(1M),
      logins(1M), useradd(1M), usermod(1M), group(4), passwd(4), shadow(4).

 STANDARDS CONFORMANCE    [Toc]    [Back]
      userdel: SVID3


 Hewlett-Packard Company            - 3 -   HP-UX 11i Version 2: August 2003