Can't find users in home directory

linuxmantra · 04-21-2014, 10:32 PM

usually home directory of user is /home/username.When I type # cd /home and long list the file,I see all the users. But here happens two case

1. lets say user tom, I types # id tom, its shows the tom information(UID,GID etc). But I can't see the tom in /home directory. I even tried # grep tom /etc/passwd, no information available. what to do?

2. I created a user with # useradd -M <user-name>. user is created but this user is not present under /home. How would I set/make home directory for this user as /home and that I can see this user.

Thank you.

Berhanie · 04-21-2014, 11:16 PM

my man page for useradd (fedora) says:

Code:

       -M
           Do not create the user's home directory, even if the system wide setting from /etc/login.defs (CREATE_HOME) is set to yes.

Automatic · 04-22-2014, 12:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Berhanie

my man page for useradd (fedora) says:

Code:

       -M
           Do not create the user's home directory, even if the system wide setting from /etc/login.defs (CREATE_HOME) is set to yes.

Indeed, command you're looking for is '-m', not '-M'. Capitalization is important in pretty much every computer system out there, 'm' and 'M' and completely different characters.

kooru · 04-22-2014, 01:22 AM

As said by Automatic, -m and -M are different:

Code:

       -m, --create-home
           Create the user's home directory if it does not exist. The files
           and directories contained in the skeleton directory (which can be
           defined with the -k option) will be copied to the home directory.

           By default, if this option is not specified and CREATE_HOME is not
           enabled, no home directories are created.

       -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.

jpollard · 04-22-2014, 07:15 AM

This can also happen when using things like NIS or LDAP to hold login information. The login data exists, but the account on the specific system doesn't.

Shadow_7 · 04-22-2014, 11:33 AM

useradd by default does not create the /home/ folder. Using adduser is preferred as it does the extras by default.

linuxmantra · 04-23-2014, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpollard

This can also happen when using things like NIS or LDAP to hold login information. The login data exists, but the account on the specific system doesn't.

Yes you are right. If the user is under IdM ( Identity Management) then user information (#id <user name>) can be seen but can't be seen in /home directory which is the defautl home directory. In order to see the user in /home directory, we need to do
#cp -rp /etc/skel/ <user-name>

The user will be seen in /home directory. And this was the reason why I earlier did not see the user in /home directory. So, in IdM user can be granted read only access which I camed to know while working in this issue with the team in my office.

linuxmantra · 04-23-2014, 10:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Automatic

Indeed, command you're looking for is '-m', not '-M'. Capitalization is important in pretty much every computer system out there, 'm' and 'M' and completely different characters.

I can create user with -M option (-M does not create home directory) as #useradd -M <user name> , proble with doing this is, this user can't be seen in /home directory. In order to see the user in /home directory we need to do
#cp -rp /etc/skel/ <user name>

Now, you can see user in /home directory.