On Sun, Jan 25, 2015 at 03:43:06AM +0000, Always Learning wrote: > -M, do not create user's home directory > > so why do I see in /etc/passwd > > fred:x:504:504::/home/fred:/sbin/nologin -M stops it doing a "mkdir" to create the actual directory in the filesystem > Should the 'correct' entry be:- > > fred:x:504:504:::/sbin/nologin ? No; that's invalid. There must be an entry in the home directory field. -- rgds Stephen