[SOLVED] Is adduser command same as in Debian

ethoms · 03-25-2014, 04:22 AM

Hi, I'm just starting to find my way around Slackware. I noticed that it has an adduser command. Is it the same as the one found in Debian?

I tried to compare using the man page, but there doesn't seem to be a man page for adduser. The reason I ask is that in Debian's version it has a config file /etc/adduser.conf. I have developed a GUI frontend for adding users that has its defaults configured in /etc/adduser.conf.

The main reason I need to alter defaults is to change the default groups that a new regular user belongs to.

Alien Bob · 03-25-2014, 05:23 AM

The Slackware "adduser" script was created in 1995 as a wrapper for the UNIX useradd command, and was vastly improved by Stuart Winter and Patrick volkerding.
I doubt that there will be similarities with the Debian version of the script, unless Debian borrowed it from Slackware.
In any case, the Slackware script does not read a configuration file.

Eric

Didier Spaier · 03-25-2014, 06:44 AM

And in any case /usr/sbin/adduser being a shell script you can easily modify it if need be. For instance you could edit this line :
defgroup=users
to change the default group for users if that's what you want.

sardinha · 03-25-2014, 06:52 AM

It's similar, but not with all features options. For example I think in Debian it is possible to add a user alpha to a group beta with command: adduser alpha beta . In Slackware it can be done with the command: usermod -a -G beta alpha

Read it in Slackware Docs - User and Group Management:
http://docs.slackware.com/slackbook:users

You can see some examples too (in french) written by kikinovak: http://www.microlinux.fr/slackware/L...ment-HOWTO.txt

ethoms · 03-25-2014, 07:07 AM

OK, thanks for the quick and very useful responses.

I think since I can't copy functionality directly, I will just make a Slackware version of my GUI. Instead of calling adduser I'll just call useradd with the appropriate flags. The GUI is pyqt4 and is a simple wrapper for shell commands. I may even go as far as to pull the groups from a centrally managed database.

Once again, thanks.