USERDEL(8)		  System Management Commands		    USERDEL(8)



NAME
       userdel - delete a user account and related files

SYNOPSIS
       userdel [options] LOGIN

DESCRIPTION
       userdel is a low level utility for adding users. On Debian,
       administrators should usually use deluser(8) instead.

       The userdel command modifies the system account files, deleting all
       entries that refer to the user name LOGIN. The named user must exist.

OPTIONS
       The options which apply to the userdel command are:

       -f, --force
	   This option forces the removal of the user account, even if the
	   user is still logged in. It also forces userdel to remove the
	   user's home directory and mail spool, even if another user uses the
	   same home directory or if the mail spool is not owned by the
	   specified user. If USERGROUPS_ENAB is defined to yes in
	   /etc/login.defs and if a group exists with the same name as the
	   deleted user, then this group will be removed, even if it is still
	   the primary group of another user.


	   Note: This option is dangerous and may leave your system in an
	   inconsistent state.

       -h, --help
	   Display help message and exit.

       -r, --remove
	   Files in the user's home directory will be removed along with the
	   home directory itself and the user's mail spool. Files located in
	   other file systems will have to be searched for and deleted
	   manually.

	   The mail spool is defined by the MAIL_DIR variable in the
	   login.defs file.

FILES
       /etc/group
	   Group account information.

       /etc/login.defs
	   Shadow password suite configuration.

       /etc/passwd
	   User account information.

       /etc/shadow
	   Secure user account information.

EXIT VALUES
       The userdel command exits with the following values:

       0
	   success

       1
	   can't update password file

       2
	   invalid command syntax

       6
	   specified user doesn't exist

       8
	   user currently logged in

       10
	   can't update group file

       12
	   can't remove home directory

CAVEATS
       userdel will not allow you to remove an account if the user is
       currently logged in. You must kill any running processes which belong
       to an account that you are deleting.

       You may not remove any NIS attributes on a NIS client. This must be
       performed on the NIS server.

       If USERGROUPS_ENAB is defined to yes in /etc/login.defs, userdel will
       delete the group with the same name as the user. To avoid
       inconsistencies in the passwd and group databases, userdel will check
       that this group is not used as a primary group for another user, and
       will just warn without deleting the user otherwise. The -f option can
       force the deletion of this group.

SEE ALSO
       chfn(1), chsh(1), passwd(1), login.defs(5), gpasswd(8), groupadd(8),
       groupdel(8), groupmod(8), useradd(8), usermod(8).



System Management Commands	  12/08/2008			    USERDEL(8)