Open System Services Shell and Utilities Reference Manual (G06.29+, H06.08+, J06.03+)

newusers(8) OSS Shell and Utilities Reference Manual
NAME
newusers - Updates and creates new users in batch.
SYNOPSIS
newusers [options new_users_file]
FLAGS
-h Display this help and exit.
DESCRIPTION
The newusers command reads a file of user name and clear-text password pairs and uses this
information to update a group of existing users or to create new users. Each line is in the format
as shown below:
user_type:name:passwd:membe r Num:groupNum:description:dir
user_type
The type of user, user or alias, as indicated by U or A respectively.
name The name of the user or alias. It can be the name of a new user or alias or the name of an
existing user or alias (or a user created before by newusers). For an existing user, the
user’s information will be changed, otherwise a new user will be created. In the absence
of a fully qualified user name, a username will be derived as explained in useradd(8) or
usermod, respectively.
passwd The new clear-text value of the password that Safeguard will encrypt.
This option is only valid if Safeguard is running on the system.
memberNum
The member number of the user. If the field is empty for a new user, a new (unused)
member number will be derived automatically as explained in useradd(8). If this field
contains a number, it must match the existing value for an existing user specified or
derived from name. This must be an unused number for a new user.
groupNum
The primary group number of the user. If the field is empty for a user, the group number
is derived automatically as explained in useradd(8).
description
A description of the user. Maximum length of 80 characters.
This option is only valid if Safeguard is running on the system.
dir The home directory of the user. If this field does not specify an existing directory, the
specified directory is created with ownership set to the user being created or updated and
its primary group.
This option is only valid if Safeguard is running on the system.
NOTES
• The newusers command does not create parent directories of the new user’s home direc-
tory. If the parent directories do not exist, the newusers command fails to create the
home directory and sends a message to STDERR informing the user of the failure.
• If the newusers command fails to create the home directory, it does not halt or return a
failure to the calling shell. It will continue to process the batch of new users specified.
• If the home directory of an existing user is changed, newusers does not move or copy the
content of the old directory to the new location. This must be done manually.
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