usermgmt.hlp revision 242123
133965SjdpThese screens allow you to add groups and users to your system. 233965Sjdp 3130561SobrienMany of the settings get reasonable defaults if you leave them blank. 489857SobrienThe first time you have entered the name of the new group or user, the 589857Sobriensystem will show you what it would chose for most of these fields. 689857SobrienYou are free to change them, of course. 789857Sobrien 833965Sjdp 933965SjdpUser groups 1033965Sjdp=========== 1133965Sjdp 12218822SdimIt's certainly almost generally a good idea to first create a new 13218822Sdimgroup for your users. Common names for such a group are "users", or 1433965Sjdpeven simply "other". Group names are used to control file access 1533965Sjdppermissions for users that belong to the same group. Several group 1633965Sjdpnames are already used for system files. 1733965Sjdp 1833965SjdpThe numerical user or group IDs are often nothing you want to care for 1933965Sjdpexplicitly. If you don't fill in these fields, the system will choose 2033965Sjdpreasonable defaults. However, these numbers (rather than the 2133965Sjdpassociated names) are what the operating system actually uses to 2233965Sjdpdistinguish users and groups -- hence they should normally be unique 2333965Sjdpto each person or group, respectively. 2433965Sjdp 2533965Sjdp 2633965SjdpUsers 2733965Sjdp===== 2833965Sjdp 2933965SjdpThe user's login ID is a short (up to 15 characters) alphanumeric ID 3033965Sjdpthat the user must enter when logging into the system. It's often the 31218822Sdiminitial letters of the user's name, and commonly used in lower case. 3233965SjdpIt's also the local mail name for this user (though it's possible to 3333965Sjdpalso set up more descriptive mail alias names later). 3433965Sjdp 35218822SdimThe user's login group determines which group access rights the user 3633965Sjdpwill initially get when logging in. If an additional list of groups is 3733965Sjdpprovided which the user will become a member of, (s)he will also be 3833965Sjdpable to access files of those groups later without providing any 3933965Sjdpadditional password etc. Except for the "wheel" case mentioned below, 4033965Sjdpthe additional group membership list should normally not contain the 4133965Sjdplogin group again. 4233965Sjdp 4333965SjdpThe user's password can also be set here, and should be chosen with 4477298Sobriencare - 6 or more characters, intermixing punctuation and numerics, and 4577298Sobrien*not* a word from the dictionary or related to the username is a good 4633965Sjdppassword choice. 4733965Sjdp 48130561SobrienSome of the system's groups have a special meaning. In particular, 4933965Sjdpmembers of group "wheel" are the only people who are later allowed to 50130561Sobrienbecome superuser using the command su(1). So if you're going to add a 51130561Sobriennew user who should later perform administrative tasks, don't forget 52130561Sobriento add him to this group! (Well, ``he'' will most likely be yourself 5333965Sjdpin the very first place. :) 5433965Sjdp 5533965SjdpAlso, members of group "operator" will by default get permissions for 5633965Sjdpminor administrative operations, like performing system backups, or 5733965Sjdpshutting down the system -- without first becoming superuser! So, 58130561Sobrientake care when adding people to this group. 59130561Sobrien 60130561SobrienThe ``full name'' field serves as a comment only. It is also used by 6133965Sjdpmail front ends to determine the real name of the user, hence you 6233965Sjdpshould actually fill in the first and last name of this user. By 6333965Sjdpconvention, this field can be divided into comma-separated subfields, 6433965Sjdpwhere the office location, the work phone number, and the home phone 65130561Sobriennumber follow the full name of the user. 6633965Sjdp 6733965SjdpThe home directory is the directory in the filesystem where the user 6833965Sjdpis being logged into, and where his personalized setup files (``dot 6933965Sjdpfiles'', since they usually begin with a `.' and are not displayed by 7033965Sjdpthe ls(1) command by default) will be looked up. It is often created 7133965Sjdpunder /usr/home/ or /home/. 7233965Sjdp 7333965SjdpFinally, the shell is the user's initial command interpreter. The 7433965Sjdpdefault shell is /bin/sh, some users prefer the more historic 7533965Sjdp/bin/csh. Other, often more user-friendly and comfortable shells can 7633965Sjdpbe found in the ports and packages collection. 77130561Sobrien