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Simplifying User Accounts and Permissions Management in Linux

Linux Journal
3 months 2 weeks ago
by George Whittaker

Linux, renowned for its robustness and security, is a powerful multi-user operating system that allows multiple people to interact with the same system resources without interfering with each other. Proper management of user accounts and permissions is crucial to maintaining the security and efficiency of a Linux system. This article provides an exploration of how to effectively manage user accounts and permissions in Linux.

Understanding User Accounts in Linux

User accounts are essential for individual users to access and operate Linux systems. They help in resource allocation, setting privileges, and securing the system from unauthorized access. There are mainly two types of user accounts:

  • Root account: This is the superuser account with full access to all commands and files on a Linux system. The root account has the power to do anything, including tasks that can potentially harm the system, hence it should be used sparingly.
  • Regular user accounts: These accounts have more limited permissions, generally confined to the user's home directory. Permissions for these accounts are set in a way that protects the core functionalities of the system from unintended disruptions.

Additionally, Linux systems also include various system accounts that are used to run services such as web servers, databases, and more.

Creating and Managing User Accounts

Creating a user account in Linux can be accomplished with the useradd or adduser commands. The adduser command is more interactive and user-friendly than useradd.

Creating a new user

sudo adduser newusername

This command creates a new user account and its home directory with default configuration files.

Setting user attributes
  • Password: Set or change passwords using the passwd command.
  • Home directory: Specify a home directory at creation with useradd -d /home/newusername newusername.
  • Login shell: Define the default shell with useradd -s /bin/bash newusername.
Modifying and deleting user accounts
  • To modify an existing user, use usermod. For example, sudo usermod -s /bin/zsh username changes the user's default shell to zsh.
  • To delete a user, along with their home directory, use userdel -r username.
Understanding Linux Permissions

In Linux, every file and directory has associated access permissions which determine who can read, write, or execute them.

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George Whittaker