[CentOS] Adding user's and groups

Sun Dec 2 22:29:44 UTC 2007
John R Pierce <pierce at hogranch.com>

Joseph L. Casale wrote:
>
> Is it ok to edit the /etc/passwd and /etc/group files manually to add 
> users and groups or would this circumvent other required system 
> commands from being executed when adding them at the command line via 
> useradd and groupadd?
>
> In reading the docs @ 
> http://www.centos.org/docs/5/html/Deployment_Guide-en-US/s1-users-tools.html#s2-users-cmd-line 
> I see a user that is created with these utilities is disabled until 
> unlocked with passwd. If someone is creating users for services 
> without home dirs and shell access, how do you handle the password? 
> Looking at the example provided in a doc I am reading, there is “*” in 
> the password field in the passwd file. Is that suggesting it’s just 
> not displayed in the doc, or does the “*” have specific meaning?
>
>


the useradd/mod/del and passwd commands will work with any supported 
PAM, while manually editing /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow will only work 
if you're using the default authentication methods.


re: the *, see `man 5 passwd`