DELUSER(8)                           System Manager's Manual                           DELUSER(8)



NAME
       deluser, delgroup - remove a user or group from the system

SYNOPSIS
       deluser  [options]  [--force] [--remove-home] [--remove-all-files] [--backup] [--backup-to
       DIR] user

       deluser --group [options] group
       delgroup [options] [--only-if-empty] group

       deluser [options] user group

   COMMON OPTIONS
       [--quiet] [--system] [--help] [--version] [--conf FILE]

DESCRIPTION
       deluser and delgroup remove users and groups from the system  according  to  command  line
       options  and  configuration  information in /etc/deluser.conf and /etc/adduser.conf.  They
       are friendlier front ends to the userdel and groupdel programs, removing the  home  direc‐
       tory  as option or even all files on the system owned by the user to be removed, running a
       custom script, and other features.  deluser and delgroup can be run in one of three modes:

   Remove a normal user
       If called with one non-option argument and without the --group option, deluser will remove
       a normal user.

       By  default,  deluser  will  remove the user without removing the home directory, the mail
       spool  or any other files on the system owned by the user. Removing the home directory and
       mail spool can be achieved using the --remove-home option.

       The --remove-all-files option removes all files on the system owned by the user. Note that
       if you activate both options --remove-home will have no effect because all files including
       the home directory and mail spool are already covered by the --remove-all-files option.

       If  you want to backup all files before deleting them you can activate the --backup option
       which will create  a  file  username.tar(.gz|.bz2)  in  the  directory  specified  by  the
       --backup-to  option  (defaulting  to  the  current working directory). Both the remove and
       backup  options  can  also  be  activated  for   default   in   the   configuration   file
       /etc/deluser.conf. See deluser.conf(5) for details.

       If  you  want to remove the root account (uid 0), then use the --force parameter; this may
       prevent to remove the root user by accident.

       If the file /usr/local/sbin/deluser.local exists, it  will  be  executed  after  the  user
       account  has  been  removed  in  order  to  do  any local cleanup. The arguments passed to
       deluser.local are:
       username uid gid home-directory


   Remove a group
       If deluser is called with the --group option, or delgroup  is  called,  a  group  will  be
       removed.

       Warning: The primary group of an existing user cannot be removed.

       If  the  option --only-if-empty is given, the group won't be removed if it has any members
       left.


   Remove a user from a specific group
       If called with two non-option arguments, deluser will remove a user from a specific group.

OPTIONS
       --conf FILE
              Use FILE instead of the default files /etc/deluser.conf and /etc/adduser.conf

       --group
              Remove a group. This is the default action if the program is invoked as delgroup.

       --help Display brief instructions.

       --quiet
              Suppress progress messages.

       --system
              Only delete if user/group is a system user/group. This avoids accidentally deleting
              non-system  users/groups.  Additionally, if the user does not exist, no error value
              is returned. This option is mainly for use in Debian package maintainer scripts.

       --backup
              Backup all files contained in the userhome and the mailspool-file to a  file  named
              /$user.tar.bz2 or /$user.tar.gz.

       --backup-to
              Place  the  backup files not in / but in the directory specified by this parameter.
              This implicitly sets --backup also.

       --remove-home
              Remove the home directory of the user and its mailspool. If --backup is  specified,
              the files are deleted after having performed the backup.

       --remove-all-files
              Remove  all  files from the system owned by this user. Note: --remove-home does not
              have an effect any more. If --backup is specified, the files are deleted after hav‐
              ing performed the backup.

       --version
              Display version and copyright information.

RETURN VALUE
       0      The action was successfully executed.

       1      The user to delete was not a system account. No action was performed.

       2      There is no such user. No action was performed.

       3      There is no such group. No action was performed.

       4      Internal error. No action was performed.

       5      The group to delete is not empty. No action was performed.

       6      The user does not belong to the specified group. No action was performed.

       7      You cannot remove a user from its primary group. No action was performed.

       8      The required perl-package 'perl modules' is not installed. This package is required
              to perform the requested actions. No action was performed.

       9      For removing the root account the parameter "--force" is required.  No  action  was
              performed.


FILES
       /etc/deluser.conf

SEE ALSO
       deluser.conf(5), adduser(8), userdel(8), groupdel(8)


COPYRIGHT
       Copyright  (C)  2000 Roland Bauerschmidt. Modifications (C) 2004 Marc Haber and Joerg Hoh.
       This manpage and the deluser program are based on adduser which is:
       Copyright (C) 1997, 1998, 1999 Guy Maor.
       Copyright (C) 1995 Ted Hajek, with a great deal borrowed from the original Debian adduser
       Copyright (C) 1994 Ian Murdock.  deluser is free software;  see  the  GNU  General  Public
       Licence version 2 or later for copying conditions.  There is no warranty.



Debian GNU/Linux                        Version 3.113+nmu3                             DELUSER(8)