USERDEL(8)		  System Management Commands		    USERDEL(8)



NAME
       userdel - delete a user account and related files

SYNOPSIS
       userdel [options] LOGIN

DESCRIPTION
       The userdel command modifies the system account files, deleting all
       entries that refer to the user name LOGIN. The named user must exist.

OPTIONS
       The options which apply to the userdel command are:

       -f, --force
	   This option forces the removal of the user account, even if the
	   user is still logged in. It also forces userdel to remove the
	   user's home directory and mail spool, even if another user uses the
	   same home directory or if the mail spool is not owned by the
	   specified user. If USERGROUPS_ENAB is defined to yes in
	   /etc/login.defs and if a group exists with the same name as the
	   deleted user, then this group will be removed, even if it is still
	   the primary group of another user.


	   Note: This option is dangerous and may leave your system in an
	   inconsistent state.

       -h, --help
	   Display help message and exit.

       -r, --remove
	   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.

	   The mail spool is defined by the MAIL_DIR variable in the
	   login.defs file.

       -Z, --selinux-user
	   Remove SELinux user assigned to the user's login from SELinux login
	   mapping.

CONFIGURATION
       The following configuration variables in /etc/login.defs change the
       behavior of this tool:

       MAIL_DIR (string)
	   The mail spool directory. This is needed to manipulate the mailbox
	   when its corresponding user account is modified or deleted. If not
	   specified, a compile-time default is used.

       MAIL_FILE (string)
	   Defines the location of the users mail spool files relatively to
	   their home directory.

       The MAIL_DIR and MAIL_FILE variables are used by useradd, usermod, and
       userdel to create, move, or delete the user's mail spool.

       If MAIL_CHECK_ENAB is set to yes, they are also used to define the MAIL
       environment variable.

       MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP (number)
	   Maximum members per group entry. When the maximum is reached, a new
	   group entry (line) is started in /etc/group (with the same name,
	   same password, and same GID).

	   The default value is 0, meaning that there are no limits in the
	   number of members in a group.

	   This feature (split group) permits to limit the length of lines in
	   the group file. This is useful to make sure that lines for NIS
	   groups are not larger than 1024 characters.

	   If you need to enforce such limit, you can use 25.

	   Note: split groups may not be supported by all tools (even in the
	   Shadow toolsuite). You should not use this variable unless you
	   really need it.

       USERDEL_CMD (string)
	   If defined, this command is run when removing a user. It should
	   remove any at/cron/print jobs etc. owned by the user to be removed
	   (passed as the first argument).

	   The return code of the script is not taken into account.

	   Here is an example script, which removes the user's cron, at and
	   print jobs:

	       #! /bin/sh

	       # Check for the required argument.
	       if [ $# != 1 ]; then
		    echo "Usage: $0 username"
		    exit 1
	       fi

	       # Remove cron jobs.
	       crontab -r -u $1

	       # Remove at jobs.
	       # Note that it will remove any jobs owned by the same UID,
	       # even if it was shared by a different username.
	       AT_SPOOL_DIR=/var/spool/cron/atjobs
	       find $AT_SPOOL_DIR -name "[^.]*" -type f -user $1 -delete \;

	       # Remove print jobs.
	       lprm $1

	       # All done.
	       exit 0



       USERGROUPS_ENAB (boolean)
	   Enable setting of the umask group bits to be the same as owner bits
	   (examples: 022 -> 002, 077 -> 007) for non-root users, if the uid
	   is the same as gid, and username is the same as the primary group
	   name.

	   If set to yes, userdel will remove the user's group if it contains
	   no more members, and useradd will create by default a group with
	   the name of the user.

FILES
       /etc/group
	   Group account information.

       /etc/login.defs
	   Shadow password suite configuration.

       /etc/passwd
	   User account information.

       /etc/shadow
	   Secure user account information.

EXIT VALUES
       The userdel command exits with the following values:

       0
	   success

       1
	   can't update password file

       2
	   invalid 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
       userdel will not allow you to remove an account if there are running
       processes which belong to this account. In that case, you may have to
       kill those processes or lock the user's password or account and remove
       the account later. The -f option can force the deletion of this
       account.

       You should manually check all file systems to ensure that no files
       remain owned by this user.

       You may not remove any NIS attributes on a NIS client. This must be
       performed on the NIS server.

       If USERGROUPS_ENAB is defined to yes in /etc/login.defs, userdel will
       delete the group with the same name as the user. To avoid
       inconsistencies in the passwd and group databases, userdel will check
       that this group is not used as a primary group for another user, and
       will just warn without deleting the group otherwise. The -f option can
       force the deletion of this group.

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



System Management Commands	  07/24/2009			    USERDEL(8)