NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

       userdel - Delete a user account and related files

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

       userdel [-r] login

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

       The  userdel  command  modifies	the system account files, deleting all
       entries that refer to login.  If  USERGROUPS_ENAB  is  set  to  yes  in
       /etc/login.defs,  then  userdel	will also remove entries in /etc/group
       that refer to login if, and only if, there are no members of that group
       listed, or the only member is login.  The named user must exist.

       -r     Files  in  the  user's home directory will be removed along with
	      the home directory itself and  the  user's  mail	spool.	 Files
	      located  in  other file systems will have to be searched for and
	      deleted manually.

FILES    [Toc]    [Back]

       /etc/passwd - user account information
       /etc/shadow - secure user account information
       /etc/group - group information
       /etc/login.defs - login configuration file

EXIT VALUES    [Toc]    [Back]

       0    - success
       1    - can't update password file
       2    - bad command syntax
       6    - specified user doesn't exist
       8    - user currently logged in
       10   - can't update group file
       12   - can't remove home directory

CAVEATS    [Toc]    [Back]

       userdel will not allow you to remove an account if  the	user  is  currently
  logged in.  You must kill any running processes which belong to
       an account  that  you  are  deleting.   You  may  not  remove  any  NIS
       attributes on an NIS client.  This must be performed on the NIS server.

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

       chfn(1), chsh(1),  groupadd(8),	groupdel(8),  groupmod(8),  passwd(1),
       useradd(8), usermod(8), login.defs(5)

AUTHOR    [Toc]    [Back]

       Julianne Frances Haugh (jfh@austin.ibm.com)



								    USERDEL(8)