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Date:      Sat, 05 Aug 2006 13:12:08 +0100
From:      Matthew Seaman <m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk>
To:        beno <beno@web.vi>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: User Information (Easy Questions!)
Message-ID:  <44D48B18.3020401@infracaninophile.co.uk>
In-Reply-To: <44D478C2.5040205@web.vi>
References:  <44D478C2.5040205@web.vi>

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beno wrote:
> Hi;
> * How do I find out which users have access to the box and what their
> permissions/groups are?

Type:

    % id username

which will tell you the users' UID and what groups they are a member of.

> * How do I edit those permissions/groups?

Unless you're using NIS or LDAP or some other directory program, then
all you need to do is edit the /etc/master.passwd and /etc/group files.
You can do that directly; use the vipw(8) command to edit
the password file safely and to automatically rebuild /etc/passwd the=20
various .db files from /etc/master.passwd, but beware that screwing up
the password file can lock you out of the machine.

However using the pw(8) command is recommended.

> * If I delete a user, does that affect the files/programs he installed,=

> etc?

No -- file and program ownership is recorded in the filesystem using
the UID and GID numbers.  Deleting the user from the password file remove=
s
the human readable name and the password needed to log in and the mapping=

from username to UID.  The files will still exist in the system, but
when you look at the ownership of them using ls(1) you'll see a number=20
instead of a name for the owner.

Note: this is potentially a problem.  If the UID number gets reused for a=

different account, that new user will get all the ownership rights to the=

old users' files.  It can often be a better policy to disable an old acco=
unt
-- set the password field in /etc/master.passwd to '!!' and change the sh=
ell
to /sbin/nologin -- rather than to delete it.

You can also get a report on any 'unowned' files in the weekly periodic
e-mail by adding

    weekly_noid_enable=3D"YES"

to /etc/periodic.conf

	Cheers,

	Matthew

--=20
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                       7 Priory Courtyard
                                                      Flat 3
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey         Ramsgate
                                                      Kent, CT11 9PW


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