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Date: Mon, 31 Mar 1997 18:33:55 -0500 (EST)
From: The Devil Himself <fullermd@keystone.westminster.edu>
To: jadeite <jadeite@light.pomona.edu>
cc: Anton Zykov <zykov@dickinson.edu>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: delete a user
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On Mon, 31 Mar 1997, jadeite wrote:
> how did you delete the user?
> if you just deleted the line from /etc/passwd and didn't run pwd_mkdb then
> the doesn't go away.
> 
> On Mon, 31 Mar 1997, Anton Zykov wrote:
> 
> > I'm confused.
> > I tried to delete a user. 2 days later I wanted to create another user
> > with the same name, but I've got an error message saying that the user
> > with that name already exists. How I can delete the user permanently?
> > 
> > Thanks ahead,
> > Anton

Deleteing the line from /etc/passwd won't do it.
Use vipw, delete the line referencing the user.
Exit using ZZ to save it, and it'll rebuild the database automatically, 
and make a new /etc/passwd file too (vipw edits /etc/master.passwd)
Then, edit your /etc/groups file to remove all the references to the 
user.
Finally, delete the user's home directory.

I'm not sure whether the last 2 steps are necessary, but they shouldn't 
take too long anyway.

Hope it helps!!

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