Scroll to navigation

DELUSER(8) System Manager's Manual DELUSER(8)

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] user
deluser [--system] [--backup] [--backup-suffix str] [--backup-to dir] [--conf file] [--debug] [--remove-all-files] [--remove-home] [--quiet] [--verbose] user
deluser --group [--conf file] [--debug] [--only-if-empty] [--quiet] [--verbose] group
delgroup [--system] [--conf file] [--debug] [--only-if-empty] [--quiet] [--verbose] group
deluser [--conf file] [--debug] [--quiet] [--verbose] 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 friendlier front ends to the userdel and groupdel programs, removing the home directory as option or even all files on the system owned by the user to be removed, running a custom script, and 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 (e.g. .gz, .bz2, .xz).

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 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. (defaulting to the current working directory). Valid Modes: deluser, deluser --system,
Use file instead of the default files /etc/deluser.conf and /etc/adduser.conf. Multiple --conf options may be given.
Activate debugging code.
Remove a group. This is the default action if the program is invoked as delgroup. Valid Mode: deluser.
Display brief instructions.
Only remove if no members are left. Valid Modes: deluser --group, delgroup,
Suppress informational messages, only show warnings and errors.
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 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,
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,
Be more verbose.
Display version and copyright information.

RETURN VALUE

0
Success: The action was successfully executed.
1
The user to delete was not a system account. No action was performed.
2
There is no such user. No action was performed.
3
There is no such group. No action was performed.
4
Internal error. No action was performed.
5
The group to delete is not empty. No action was performed.
6
The user does not belong to the specified group. No action was performed.
7
You cannot remove a user from its primary group. No action was performed.
8
The suggested package 'perl' is not installed. This package is required to perform the requested actions. No action was performed.
9
The root account cannot be deleted. No action was performed.

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 create arbitrary accounts. 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)

SEE ALSO

adduser(8), deluser.conf(5), deluser.local.conf(8), groupdel(8), userdel(8)

Debian GNU/Linux