usermgmt.hlp revision 256281
1210284SjmallettThese screens allow you to add groups and users to your system. 2210284Sjmallett 3210284SjmallettMany of the settings get reasonable defaults if you leave them blank. 4210284SjmallettThe first time you have entered the name of the new group or user, the 5210284Sjmallettsystem will show you what it would chose for most of these fields. 6210284SjmallettYou are free to change them, of course. 7210284Sjmallett 8210284Sjmallett 9210284SjmallettUser groups 10210284Sjmallett=========== 11210284Sjmallett 12210284SjmallettIt's certainly almost generally a good idea to first create a new 13210284Sjmallettgroup for your users. Common names for such a group are "users", or 14210284Sjmalletteven simply "other". Group names are used to control file access 15210284Sjmallettpermissions for users that belong to the same group. Several group 16210284Sjmallettnames are already used for system files. 17210284Sjmallett 18210284SjmallettThe numerical user or group IDs are often nothing you want to care for 19210284Sjmallettexplicitly. If you don't fill in these fields, the system will choose 20210284Sjmallettreasonable defaults. However, these numbers (rather than the 21210284Sjmallettassociated names) are what the operating system actually uses to 22210284Sjmallettdistinguish users and groups -- hence they should normally be unique 23210284Sjmallettto each person or group, respectively. 24210284Sjmallett 25210284Sjmallett 26210284SjmallettUsers 27210284Sjmallett===== 28210284Sjmallett 29210284SjmallettThe user's login ID is a short (up to 15 characters) alphanumeric ID 30210284Sjmallettthat the user must enter when logging into the system. It's often the 31210284Sjmallettinitial letters of the user's name, and commonly used in lower case. 32210284SjmallettIt's also the local mail name for this user (though it's possible to 33210284Sjmallettalso set up more descriptive mail alias names later). 34210284Sjmallett 35210284SjmallettThe user's login group determines which group access rights the user 36210284Sjmallettwill initially get when logging in. If an additional list of groups is 37210284Sjmallettprovided which the user will become a member of, (s)he will also be 38210284Sjmallettable to access files of those groups later without providing any 39210284Sjmallettadditional password etc. Except for the "wheel" case mentioned below, 40210284Sjmallettthe additional group membership list should normally not contain the 41210284Sjmallettlogin group again. 42210284Sjmallett 43210284SjmallettThe user's password can also be set here, and should be chosen with 44210284Sjmallettcare - 6 or more characters, intermixing punctuation and numerics, and 45210284Sjmallett*not* a word from the dictionary or related to the username is a good 46210284Sjmallettpassword choice. 47210284Sjmallett 48210284SjmallettSome of the system's groups have a special meaning. In particular, 49210284Sjmallettmembers of group "wheel" are the only people who are later allowed to 50210284Sjmallettbecome superuser using the command su(1). So if you're going to add a 51210284Sjmallettnew user who should later perform administrative tasks, don't forget 52210284Sjmallettto add him to this group! (Well, ``he'' will most likely be yourself 53210284Sjmallettin the very first place. :) 54210284Sjmallett 55210284SjmallettAlso, members of group "operator" will by default get permissions for 56210284Sjmallettminor administrative operations, like performing system backups, or 57210284Sjmallettshutting down the system -- without first becoming superuser! So, 58210284Sjmalletttake care when adding people to this group. 59210284Sjmallett 60210284SjmallettThe ``full name'' field serves as a comment only. It is also used by 61210284Sjmallettmail front ends to determine the real name of the user, hence you 62210284Sjmallettshould actually fill in the first and last name of this user. By 63210284Sjmallettconvention, this field can be divided into comma-separated subfields, 64210284Sjmallettwhere the office location, the work phone number, and the home phone 65210284Sjmallettnumber follow the full name of the user. 66210284Sjmallett 67210284SjmallettThe home directory is the directory in the filesystem where the user 68210284Sjmallettis being logged into, and where his personalized setup files (``dot 69210284Sjmallettfiles'', since they usually begin with a `.' and are not displayed by 70210284Sjmallettthe ls(1) command by default) will be looked up. It is often created 71210284Sjmallettunder /usr/home/ or /home/. 72210284Sjmallett 73210284SjmallettFinally, the shell is the user's initial command interpreter. The 74210284Sjmallettdefault shell is /bin/sh, some users prefer the more historic 75210284Sjmallett/bin/csh. Other, often more user-friendly and comfortable shells can 76210284Sjmallettbe found in the ports and packages collection. 77210284Sjmallett