User Restriction

hey :-

i would like to Add a new user and restrict him to use only some commands

how to do it through command line interface ?

Are the new users to use the commandline interface or do they use a graphical interface?

If kde http://extragear.kde.org/apps/kiosktool/ seems a lttle dated but think it works, not yet had a play though.

Perhap's it'll help, think its on one of the usual suspects, of a repo.

Are the new users to use the commandline interface or do they use a graphical interface?
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they are using commandline interface

Change the login-shell for the users from bash to rbash (resp. bash -r or bash --restricted), and set their PATH-variable according, so that they can only execute certain commands. This will run bash in restricted mode.

from man bash:

6.10 The Restricted Shell

If Bash is started with the name rbash, or the `--restricted' or `-r' option is supplied at invocation, the shell becomes restricted. A restricted shell is used to set up an environment more controlled than the standard shell. A restricted shell behaves identically to bash with the exception that the following are disallowed or not performed:

* Changing directories with the cd builtin.
* Setting or unsetting the values of the SHELL, PATH, ENV, or BASH_ENV variables.
* Specifying command names containing slashes.
* Specifying a filename containing a slash as an argument to the . builtin command.
* Specifying a filename containing a slash as an argument to the `-p' option to the hash builtin command.
* Importing function definitions from the shell environment at startup.
* Parsing the value of SHELLOPTS from the shell environment at startup.
* Redirecting output using the `>', `>|', `<>', `>&', `&>', and `>>' redirection operators.
* Using the exec builtin to replace the shell with another command.
* Adding or deleting builtin commands with the `-f' and `-d' options to the enable builtin.
* Using the enable builtin command to enable disabled shell builtins.
* Specifying the `-p' option to the command builtin.
* Turning off restricted mode with `set +r' or `set +o restricted'.

These restrictions are enforced after any startup files are read.

When a command that is found to be a shell script is executed (see section 3.8 Shell Scripts), rbash turns off any restrictions in the shell spawned to execute the script.
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If you want even more control, you can substitute the login-shell by a completely different program, that e.g. presents a menu and lets the user only select from certain programs.