Changing a User

carlosinfl · 10-27-2005, 12:29 PM

Is there a way in Linux that I can change a user name and keep the same password and permissions for that user?

It's a generic user I created for FTP and I would like to change the user name but keep the same password. I also don't want to lose the files folders and permissions.

I did a search here and only found someone wanting to change their forum user name.

Thanks!

chemdawg · 10-27-2005, 01:00 PM

not sure about the absolute answer to your question, but you could always create another user, then move the files over to the new user and change all the permissions on everything using

Code:

# chown user:group <files>

that would get you where you want to go eventually. You'd then have to delete the old user.

anomie · 10-27-2005, 01:02 PM

Haven't tried this, but it looks to be theoretically possible.

Have a look at the man pages for the useradd program. You can specify a UID and GID as options. That may mean you will need to first remove the existing user. But the files he owns should still retain the same UID/GID.

Then just change the password to what you're using now after you have added him.

Warning: Test this first with a user and files you don't care about! (i.e. create a test case.)

carlosinfl · 10-27-2005, 01:17 PM

OK - How do I remove this user and all it's associated files and folders so I can start fresh?

homey · 10-27-2005, 01:43 PM

Change the user name using the command: usermod
usermod -d /home/new_name -m -l new_name old_name

carlosinfl · 10-27-2005, 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by homey
Change the user name using the command: usermod
usermod -d /home/new_name -m -l new_name old_name

Here is what I did:

Old = peostri

New = stricom

Code:

stricom:~# usermod -d /home/stricom -m -l stricom peostri

It still shows peostri when I list the home directory. What section is defined "peostri"& how do I change that?

Code:

stricom:/home# ls
carlos  ftp  laura  stricom
stricom:/home# cd stricom/
stricom:/home/stricom# ls -lh
total 16K
drwxr-xr-x  2 stricom peostri 4.0K 2005-10-26 12:35 chris
drwxr-xr-x  2 stricom peostri 4.0K 2005-10-14 16:42 derek
-rw-r--r--  1 root    root     990 2005-10-26 07:25 readme.txt
drwxr-xr-x  2 stricom peostri 4.0K 2005-10-14 16:42 tim

homey · 10-27-2005, 08:46 PM

I gave it a try and looks ok to me.
Old_user = fred
New_user = sam

Code:

usermod -d /home/sam -m -l sam fred
chown -R sam:users /home/sam/\.

Using the command: id
it looks like it would be a good idea to add -g for the new user.
usermod sam -g sam

carlosinfl · 10-30-2005, 06:46 PM

Guys - I still show the old group "peostri" when I list the directory. Can someone please tell me how I can change the group that owns this directory.

I want the group to be the same as the user and delete everything anything associated with the old user name "peostri"

Code:

stricom@stricom:~$ ls -lh
total 16K
drwxr-xr-x  2 stricom peostri 4.0K 2005-10-26 12:35 chris
drwxr-xr-x  2 stricom peostri 4.0K 2005-10-14 16:42 derek
-rw-r--r--  1 root    root     990 2005-10-26 07:25 readme.txt
drwxr-xr-x  2 stricom peostri 4.0K 2005-10-14 16:42 tim

tkedwards · 10-30-2005, 07:11 PM

stricom is still part of the peostri group (many Linux distros put each user in their own group by default) so you need to change the name of the peostri group like this

Code:

groupmod -n stricom peostri

stickman · 10-31-2005, 10:26 AM

You could use vipw to change the username in the passwd and shadow files, then rename the home directory to the new username. If you don't change the UID in the files, then the user permissions should "automagically" change.

carlosinfl · 10-31-2005, 10:29 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by tkedwards
stricom is still part of the peostri group (many Linux distros put each user in their own group by default) so you need to change the name of the peostri group like this

Code:

groupmod -n stricom peostri

That worked!

Code:

stricom:/home/carlos/music# groupmod -n stricom peostri
stricom:/home/carlos/music# su stricom
stricom@stricom:/home/carlos/music$ cd /home/stricom/
stricom@stricom:~$ ls -lh
total 16K
drwxr-xr-x  2 stricom stricom 4.0K 2005-10-26 12:35 chris
drwxr-xr-x  2 stricom stricom 4.0K 2005-10-14 16:42 derek
-rw-r--r--  1 root    root     990 2005-10-26 07:25 readme.txt
drwxr-xr-x  2 stricom stricom 4.0K 2005-10-14 16:42 tim

zeshan_b · 11-29-2005, 02:25 PM

Thank you this was very helpfull. I needed to change the owner and user for some files and folders on a linux webserver.

Thanks