Linux-for-Sys-Ads/C2/Modifying-User-Account/English

Title of script: Modifying User Account

Author: Antara Roy Choudhury

Keywords: usermod, change, lock password, unlock password, lock account, unlock account, change home directory, change shell, change comments

Visual Cue	Narration
Slide 1: Introduction	Hello and welcome to the spoken tutorial on Modifying User Account in Linux.
Slide 2: Learning Objectives	In this tutorial we will learn about usermod command Modifying attributes of user account Locking and unlocking password or account We will do this through some examples.
Slide 3: System requirement	To record this tutorial, I am using Ubuntu Linux 16.04 OS
Slide:4 Prerequisite	To practice this tutorial, you should have gone through the Linux System Administration tutorials on this website and you must have root access to your computer.
Slide 5:	The command usermod is used to modify the attributes of an already created user account. This is the syntax Here the options part is not mandatory This command supports many options. We will learn them through some examples.
Retain same screen	Earlier in the series, we had created a user radha. Now let’s modify the user account attributes of radha by using the usermod command.
Press Ctrl+Alt+T	Open the Terminal by pressing Ctrl, Alt and T keys simultaneously on the keyboard.
Type sudo su [Enter]	First, we will login as superuser or root user. To do so, type sudo space su and press Enter.
Type Password of your account [Enter]	Type your password and then press Enter.
Highlight # prompt	Notice, our login prompt has now changed to a hash symbol. This indicates that we are in the root user mode.
Only narration	Here onwards, please remember to press the Enter key after typing each command.
Type at the terminal: id radha [Enter]	We will check the user id and group information for user radha. On the terminal type id space radha
Show the output	Notice, user ID of radha is 1002
usermod -u 1100 radha [Enter]	In order to modify user ID to 1100, On the terminal we have to type- usermod space hyphen u in small letter 1100 radha
Execute at the terminal: id radha [Enter]	Now once again, type id space radha. Notice that the UID has been changed to 1100.
	usermod command can be used to modify a user’s primary and supplementary group.
Highlight the output of previous command	User radha belongs to primary group CSE And supplementary groups music_club and sports_club.
Slide 6A	We will change the primary group from CSE to electronics. We will also change the supplementary group to literature_club.
Slide 6B	But we have not created the groups electronics or literature_club. So, first we have to create these two groups.
Type: addgroup electronics [Enter]	Switch to the terminal Type addgroup space electronics
Show the output	Group electronics is added with GID 1006.
Type addgroup literature_club [Enter]	Next, type addgroup space literature_club
Show the output	Group literature_club is added with GID 1007.
usermod -g electronics -G literature_club radha [Do not press Enter]	Now, to modify the primary and supplementary groups, type: usermod space -g space electronics space -G in caps space literature_club space radha
Highlight music_club and sports_club of the output of previous command	hyphen capital G option removes the user from previous supplementary groups In this case, it removes from the previous supplementary groups
Highliture literature_club [Now press Enter]	And adds the user to the new group literature_club
Execute at the terminal: id radha [Enter]	Type id radha
Show the output Highlight appropriately	Now we can see that the primary group is set to electronics. And supplementary group is set to literature_club.
Slide 7: Add a user to a new supplementary group	How can you add a user to a new supplementary group while retaining the previous groups? For this, you should use -a option. a option denotes append.
usermod -a -G music_club radha [Enter]	Say for example, user radha wishes to be in both music_club and literature_club groups. For this type: usermod space hyphen a space hyphen G in caps space music_club space radha
Execute at the terminal: id radha [Enter]	Once again type id space radha
Show the output	Notice that user radha now belongs to two supplementary groups music_club and literature_club
usermod -l testmod radha	Suppose we now want to change the login name itself from radha to testmod. To do this, on the terminal type the following: usermod space hyphen l space testmod space radha
	Now user radha has become user testmod.
grep testmod /etc/passwd	Let’s search for testmod’s details in /etc/passwd file. Type grep space testmod space /etc/passwd
Highlight appropriately	Notice that the login name or user name has changed but the home directory remains the same. Ideally, we should rename the home directory to match the login name.
	There are 2 methods to do this.
	Method 1: We can manually rename the home directory to match the login name. Let me do that now.
Type mv /home/radha /home/testmod [Enter]	Type mv space /home/radha space /home/testmod This command will rename directory radha to testmod.
Type gedit /etc/passwd & [Enter]	Now, use any text editor to update the entry in /etc/passwd file. I will be using gedit text editor. Type gedit space /etc/passwd space ampersand
Modify /home/radha to /home/testmod	Now search for /home/radha Replace it with /home/testmod
Click to save >> close the file	Save and close the file.
Back to terminal.	Press Ctrl C to stop the currently running process.
Press Up key Press Enter	Press the Up arrow key until you get the previous grep command. And press Enter.
Show output	Notice that we have testmod as the new home directory for user testmod.
Slide 8	Method 2: We can change the home directory for the user radha with the help of usermod command.
Slide 8	The syntax to change the home directory of user radha to the directory named testmod is as follows: usermod space -m space -d space /home/testmod space radha
	This command will change the home directory of user radha to testmod
Slide 8	-d is used to modify the directory for any existing user account -m moves the contents of the existing home directory to the new home directory. The new directory will be created, if it does not already exist.
Slide 8	Important note: We should write hyphen d option immediately after the new directory name. Else we will get an error.
	I will not demonstrate this because we have already changed the home directory using method 1.
	Now let’s learn how to modify the user’s login shell and comments field.
Highlight output of previous command	Notice that our current login shell is /bin/bash and we have “Radha” as comments.
Type: usermod -s /bin/sh -c "This is modified user" testmod [Enter]	On the terminal type usermod space hyphen s space /bin/sh space hyphen c space within double quotes This is modified user space testmod
Press Up key	Press the Up arrow key to get previous grep command.
Highlight shell and comments filed in the output	Notice, we have changed the values in shell and comments field.
usermod -L testmod	As a system admin you may need to lock a user account for various reasons, like violation of some rules by the user. To lock the user testmod, type: usermod space hyphen L in Caps space testmod
cat /etc/shadow [Enter]	Now type cat space /etc/shadow
	On doing so, we get an exclamation mark added before the encrypted password for user testmod. So, no password will match it anymore. We have also seen this while locking password with passwd command.
Slide 9	It will lock only the access to password. If you wish to lock the account itself, you should also set the expiry date to 1.
Slide 10	For that type usermod space hyphen capital L space hyphen e space 1 space username It will prevent the user from logging in from any other source including ssh. I will skip the demonstration of this command.
usermod -U testmod [Enter]	To unlock the account we have to type: usermod space hyphen U in caps space testmod
Press Up key twice Press Enter	Once again check the contents of /etc/shadow file Notice, the exclamation mark is removed now. It means the password is not locked.
Retain same screen	We have seen all the options supported by usermod command. You can use the man command anytime to get details of usermod command.
Type man usermod [Enter]	Type man space usermod
Show the output And scroll down	Notice, all the details about this command as shown. Type q to quit from this command.
Type exit and press Enter	To exit from the root user access, type exit And press Enter.
Retain same screen	This brings us to the end of this tutorial. Let us summarize.
Slide 11 Summary	In this tutorial we learnt about- usermod command Modifying attributes of user account Locking and unlocking password or account
Slide 12	As assignment, modify user account amit such that Primary group is electronics Supplementary groups are music_club and literature_club Set home directory as amit_newDir Include comment "Stream Change Student"
Slide 13	Perform all the mentioned tasks in a single command. Check the entry of user account amit in /etc/passwd and /etc/group files
Slide 14 About Spoken Tutorial project	The video available at the following link summarises the Spoken Tutorial project. Please download and watch it.
Slide 15 Spoken Tutorial workshops	The Spoken Tutorial Project team conducts workshops using spoken tutorials and gives certificates. For more details, please write to us.
Slide 17 Forum for specific questions:	Pls post your timed queries in this Forum.
Slide 18 Acknowledgement	Spoken Tutorial Project is funded by NMEICT, MHRD, Government of India. More information on this mission is available at this link.
	The script has been contributed by Antara And this is Praveen from IIT Bombay signing off. Thanks for joining.

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