Debian: create a new user without home directory

Question

How do I create a new user in Debian without home directory?

score 9 · Accepted Answer · answered May 06 '10 at 07:24

Not really sure if you can create a user which doesn't have a home directory specified. That being said, the specified home directory doesn't have to exists. You can call the adduser with the option --no-create-home.

adduser --no-create-home foo

(adduser is usually the preferred higher level tool if called interactively.)

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered May 06 '10 at 07:16

2

According to the man page of useradd(8) you either want to add the parameter -M to your useradd call or you want to set CREATE_HOME=no in /etc/default/useradd.

-M
Do no create the user's home directory,
even if the system wide setting from
/etc/login.defs (CREATE_HOME) is set to yes.

answered May 06 '10 at 07:16

joschi

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-1, the very first paragraph of useradd(8) tells you, not to use it, but adduser. – May 06 '10 at 07:30

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered May 06 '10 at 07:25

2

On Debian based systems typically the adduser command is used to create new accounts instead of directly calling useradd.

The adduser option to skip creating a home directory is --no-create-home.

answered May 06 '10 at 07:25

Zoredache

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Razique · Answer 4 · 2010-05-06T07:11:32.993

1

$ useradd joe $useradd -m joe does the opposite

edit : rtfm ;) http://linux.die.net/man/8/useradd

edited May 06 '10 at 07:11

answered May 06 '10 at 07:01

Razique

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does the opposite? doesnt it just "make" the user? – HannesFostie May 06 '10 at 07:04
useradd -m creates the home dir (for instance /home/joe) – Razique May 06 '10 at 07:11
Depending on the settings for `$CREATE_HOME` in `/etc/default/useradd` the second command certainly does not do the opposite… – joschi May 06 '10 at 07:12
ain't you confusing -m and -M (in capitals) ? -m, --create-home The user's home directory will be created if it does not exist. The files contained in SKEL_DIR will be copied to the home directory if the -k option is used, otherwise the files contained in /etc/skel will be used instead. Any directories contained in SKEL_DIR or /etc/skel will be created in the user's home directory as well. The -k option is only valid in conjunction with the -m option. The default is to not create the directory and to not copy any files. – Razique May 06 '10 at 07:21
please stop down-rate without any explanation. thanks – Razique May 06 '10 at 07:27
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-1, the very first paragraph of useradd(8) tells you, not to use it, but adduser. – May 06 '10 at 07:29
Sorry, I misread the original question... my bad – HannesFostie May 06 '10 at 07:58

score -1 · Answer 5 · edited Jan 27 '21 at 13:22

As root on a Linux machine

[root@stapp01 ~]# cat /etc/passwd | grep anita
[root@stapp01 ~]# useradd -M anita
[root@stapp01 ~]# id anita
uid=1002(anita) gid=1002(anita) groups=1002(anita)
[root@stapp01 ~]# cat /etc/passwd | grep anita
anita:x:1002:1002::/home/anita:/bin/bash
[root@stapp01 ~]#
[root@stapp01 ~]# ll /home/
total 8
drwx------ 2 ansible ansible 4096 Oct 15  2019 ansible
drwx------ 2 tony    tony    4096 Jan 25  2020 tony
[root@stapp01 ~]#

Parameter of command useradd:

-M
The user home directory will not be created, even if the system wide settings from /etc/login.defs is to create home dirs.

Debian: create a new user without home directory

5 Answers5