adduser

Create a new user

What it does

adduser creates a user along with a home folder /home/<name> and a group of the same name, then asks step by step for a password and details such as the full name; you can skip those with Enter. It needs sudo.

This is a friendly wrapper from Ubuntu and Debian. The low-level useradd exists everywhere, but without -m it creates no home folder and it does not ask for a password. Users are removed with deluser.

Syntax

sudo adduser <user>
sudo deluser <user>

Examples

• Create the user deploy with a home folder

  sudo adduser deploy

  • adduser — create a user; asks for a password and details
  • deploy — the new user's name

Related commands

• usermod — Change a user, for example add them to a group
• passwd — Change a user's password
• sudo — Run a command with admin rights

Practise · All commands