Deleting a User

carlosinfl · 11-10-2005, 01:09 PM

I would like to delete a user from my Linux machine and everything associated with this user including files, profile, data, directories, everything!

I don't want anything lurking around from this user on my machine so I was wondering what would be the best way to go about this?

As far as I know I would need to issue the following command:

Code:

stricom:~# userdel -r

Is this all I will need to do? Will everything be removed from the system?

Keruskerfuerst · 11-10-2005, 01:16 PM

and have a look in the directory /home/ for an existing user "user"

TBC Cosmo · 11-10-2005, 01:33 PM

That will remove the user and the user's home directory and mail spool, but there may be files owned by that user elsewhere. If the user has already been deleted, find files owned by the uid the user had with:

# find / -user [uid]

then selectively delete OR nuke 'em all with

# find / -user [uid] -exec rm -rf {} \;