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Name

userdel - delete a user’s login from the system

Synopsis

userdel [ -r ] login

Availability

SUNWcsu

Description

The userdel command deletes a user’s login from the system and makes the appropriate login-related changes to the system file and file system.

Options

-r
Remove the user’s home directory from the system. This directory must exist. The files and directories under the home directory will no longer be accessible following successful execution of the command.
login
A string of printable characters that specify an existing login on the system. It may not contain a colon (:) or a newline (\n).

Files

/etc/passwd
/etc/shadow
/etc/group

See Also

passwd(1) , users(1B) , groupadd(1M) , groupdel(1M) , groupmod(1M) , logins(1M) , useradd(1M) , usermod(1M) , passwd(4)

Diagnostics

The userdel command exits with one of the following values:
  1. Success.
  2. Invalid command syntax. A usage message for the userdel command is displayed.
  3. The login to be removed does not exist.
  4. The login to be removed is in use.
  5. Cannot update the /etc/group file but the login is removed from the /etc/passwd file.
  6. Cannot remove or otherwise modify the home directory.

Notes

userdel only deletes a user definition that is in the local /etc/passwd file. If a network name service such as NIS or NIS+ is being used to supplement the local /etc/passwd file with additional entries, userdel cannot change information supplied by the network name service.

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