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From: Don Yuniskis <dgy@rtd.com>
Message-Id: <199701231711.KAA00974@seagull.rtd.com>
Subject: Re: Delete User
To: isis@servtech.com (Jen and Luke)
Date: Thu, 23 Jan 1997 10:11:00 -0700 (MST)
Cc: gjennejohn@frt.dec.com, sakti@idola.net.id, questions@FreeBSD.ORG
In-Reply-To: <32E78D54.446B9B3D@servtech.com> from "Jen and Luke" at Jan 23, 97 11:09:56 am
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It seems that Jen and Luke said:
> 
> garyj@frt.dec.com wrote:
> > 
> > sakti@idola.net.id writes:
> > > 1. What is a command to delete user ?
> > 
> > I think there's a deluser script, but I can't remember for which version
> > it's standard.
> > 
> > > 2. I delete user with manual step :
> > >       a. remove user property from /etc/passwd
> > >       b. remove user's homdir
> > >    why never success ?, I mean the user name is removed from /etc/passwd but
> >  -they still success to login ?
> > 
> > you *must* use vipw to change /etc/passwd, otherwise the password
> > database file (which is what really gets used by login) is not
> > updated. Did you use vipw ?
> 
>  I do it this way:
> 	1. erase users line from /etc/master.passwd
> 	2. erase their dir
> 	3. run pwd_mkdb -p /etc/master.passwd
> 
> Does anyone know if thats wrong?

I think the vipw method is preferable since it does all the file locking 
for you.

I recommend *not* removing the entry from /etc/passwd but, rather, filling
the password field with ``*'' to effectively prohibit the user from using
the account.  This allows /etc/passwd to serve as an informal record of
current AND PREVIOUS login id's.  On a small system, it's great.  On
a larger system, you probably want to create a *separate* database
to hold expired logins (maybe passwd.deleted??).  This helps insure that
a login doesn't get reused too quickly -- embarassing when "bob" #1's
email starts being received by "bob" #2!  It also gives you a record
of old accounts in case you receive some complaint at a future date, etc.

In addition to 'rm -r ~username' you probably want to 'rm /var/mail/username'
(or, if you're a nice guy, archive this stuff for a month or so off line).
You should also check to make sure there are no aliases setup for the user.
And, searching the file hierarchy for *all* files owned by that user can
be a win -- especially if the user has left something that might cause
problems later... (e.g., check ~ftp).

--don