Creating multiple user logins assigned to multiple groups at one time

**grayceworks** · 28-Feb-2011, 22:44

I have a single computer for our building which various building residents need to be able to log into with their own names. I have a listing of all the usernames (over 300 users) and passwords in a text file. I did some research and found that it should be possible to add them using a script, but there were so many changes whenever a possible script was posted that I had trouble following the message threads to get a coherent final script to use.

So far, here is what I have found, and I hope this works in Suse 11.3:
But it doesn't say anything about adding to more than one group? I know if I add thru YAST, it adds to users, and then by default adds to the additional group "video" (is this for them to be able to log in with the gui?)

However, the script I found shows one user group, but didn't say what to do if I needed to add to more than one group? Or will adding these users via the list auto-add them to video because of the default in YAST? Or do I need to put both groups, maybe comma-separated or something?

I am a mostly newbie here, and I really don't do code, but I can follow directions if they're explained well enough!

Here's what I found:

Use chmod command:

Code:

# touch /root/batch-user-add.txt
# chmod 0600 /root/batch-user-add.txt

Create a user list as follows. Open file:

Code:

# vi /root/batch-user-add.txt

Append username and password following the format provided of:

Code:

loginname:password:uid:gid:comment:home_dir:shell

*** does this mean simply copy/paste the below user info into the batch-user-add.txt file?

also, what happens if you don't define shell? and which shell is better?

Code:

Unit0106:concorderesident:1201:1001:Unit 106:/home/Unit0106:/bin/bash
Unit0107:concorderesident:1202:1001:Unit 107:/home/Unit0107:/bin/bash
Unit0108:concorderesident:1203:1001:Unit 108:/home/Unit0108:/bin/bash
Unit0109:concorderesident:1204:1001:Unit 109:/home/Unit0109:/bin/bash
Unit0201:concorderesident:1205:1001:Unit 201:/home/Unit0201:/bin/bash
Unit0202:concorderesident:1206:1001:Unit 202:/home/Unit0202:/bin/bash
Unit0203:concorderesident:1207:1001:Unit 203:/home/Unit0203:/bin/bash
Unit0204:concorderesident:1208:1001:Unit 204:/home/Unit0204:/bin/bash
Unit0205:concorderesident:1209:1001:Unit 205:/home/Unit0205:/bin/bash
Unit0206:concorderesident:1210:1001:Unit 206:/home/Unit0206:/bin/bash
Unit0207:concorderesident:1211:1001:Unit 207:/home/Unit0207:/bin/bash
Unit0208:concorderesident:1212:1001:Unit 208:/home/Unit0208:/bin/bash
Unit0209:concorderesident:1213:1001:Unit 209:/home/Unit0209:/bin/bash
Unit0210:concorderesident:1214:1001:Unit 210:/home/Unit0210:/bin/bash
Unit0301:concorderesident:1215:1001:Unit 301:/home/Unit0301:/bin/bash
Unit0302:concorderesident:1216:1001:Unit 302:/home/Unit0302:/bin/bash
Unit0303:concorderesident:1217:1001:Unit 303:/home/Unit0303:/bin/bash
Unit0304:concorderesident:1218:1001:Unit 304:/home/Unit0304:/bin/bash
Unit0305:concorderesident:1219:1001:Unit 305:/home/Unit0305:/bin/bash
Unit0306:concorderesident:1220:1001:Unit 306:/home/Unit0306:/bin/bash

Now create users in batch:

Code:

# newusers /root/batch-user-add.txt

Ok, this seems fairly straightforward so far, and the command line doesn't intimidate me too much, as I grew up on DOS.

Can someone tell me if I'm doing this right? And if I need to worry about whether it's only adding to the group "users" and not to "video" ? Or how to add to both?

and final question, a quick way to set all those newly created users to require them to change their password on first login, and then to never have the password expire afterwards? (hopefully without resetting my root password in the process?)

Any help on this is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

**grayceworks** · 28-Feb-2011, 23:17

Then it says:
Verify that your /etc/group, /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow files are updated:
***does this mean that typing the following lines of code will automatically update these files?

Code:

less /etc/group
less /etc/passwd
less /etc/shadow

**hcvv** · 01-Mar-2011, 04:01

Please, when you do not know exactly what a certain command (like less) is doing, then use

Code:

man less

Then you will see that less only lists a file in a certain way and does not change the file and certainly will not "update" it.

Same

Code:

man 5 passwd

will explain to you what all the fields in /etc/passwd are for. And when you have no shell defined, the user can not log in because he will have no shell to run. And in Linux it is rather normal to have bash as shell. But you (as system manager) can of course offer them another shell. And the user can himself change the shell, either after login for the moment (exec), or as starter for her/his next login (chsh).

I do not know the command newusers, thus I can not make any comment on it's functionality. The standard command to add a user is useradd and that command can of course be used in a script that reads a batch of users to add and then do that useradd.

My advice would be to study several man pages and may be some more documentation about user/group administration before you begin to act as system manager for a rather big group of users.

Of course, when during that study you encounter questions on details, you can come back here, but it is a bit difficult to explain all the basics here, the more while the docs are available on your system.

**grayceworks** · 01-Mar-2011, 04:10

Thanks. I appreciate your reply on this. I have been going thru the "man" pages, I just hadn't quite gotten that far yet when I made the post, but I did afterwards realize that this was just viewing those files to make sure they had been changed.

My biggest question was in the initial post, as to whether the script and instructions that I found (and I have been researching this for days) would indeed do what I am trying to do. And whether it would allow me to add that list of users to more than one group, or if I'd have to go in and run a different script to bulk-add them to an additional group.

As far as acting as system manager for a big group of users, no choice there. Was win2kpro before, but it was no longer supported, and finally when the machine died, it was replaced with a newer refurbished machine with no OS on it yet, and after some discussion, it was decided to try this, as I'd had success with it personally on my own computers.

I've just not had to add such a large group of users under linux before. On windoze, there are various tools for quickly cloning user accounts, etc. So that's what I've been trying to find here, is a way to either add a bunch of users at once with the same settings for all, or a ready-made tool of some sort that will do this.

System has been down for a few days now, between the old one dying, and getting this new one set up, and I've been researching this question for days, and not found an adequate answer, and I'm trying to hurry a bit due to the people in the building getting impatient.

I've already got the networking and printer sharing and stuff set up. Just need to get all these accounts added and hoping to avoid hours and hours of data entry.

**hcvv** · 01-Mar-2011, 04:29

I repeat, I can not comment on a script you found somewhere and where you only provide it's name. When you want people to comment on a script found somewhere in the dark on the internet, you better provide it's contents here.

**grayceworks** · 01-Mar-2011, 04:45

Ummmm... I DID provide the entire directions/contents of it in the initial post.
I'll summarize again below:

(chmod the batch-user-add.txt file)
# touch /root/batch-user-add.txt
# chmod 0600 /root/batch-user-add.txt

(open the batch-user-add.txt file to edit it)
# vi /root/batch-user-add.txt

(add the following into the batch-user-add.txt file)

Code:

Unit0106:concorderesident:1201:1001:Unit 106:/home/Unit0106:/bin/bash
Unit0107:concorderesident:1202:1001:Unit 107:/home/Unit0107:/bin/bash
Unit0108:concorderesident:1203:1001:Unit 108:/home/Unit0108:/bin/bash
Unit0109:concorderesident:1204:1001:Unit 109:/home/Unit0109:/bin/bash
Unit0201:concorderesident:1205:1001:Unit 201:/home/Unit0201:/bin/bash
Unit0202:concorderesident:1206:1001:Unit 202:/home/Unit0202:/bin/bash
Unit0203:concorderesident:1207:1001:Unit 203:/home/Unit0203:/bin/bash
Unit0204:concorderesident:1208:1001:Unit 204:/home/Unit0204:/bin/bash
Unit0205:concorderesident:1209:1001:Unit 205:/home/Unit0205:/bin/bash
Unit0206:concorderesident:1210:1001:Unit 206:/home/Unit0206:/bin/bash
Unit0207:concorderesident:1211:1001:Unit 207:/home/Unit0207:/bin/bash
Unit0208:concorderesident:1212:1001:Unit 208:/home/Unit0208:/bin/bash
Unit0209:concorderesident:1213:1001:Unit 209:/home/Unit0209:/bin/bash
Unit0210:concorderesident:1214:1001:Unit 210:/home/Unit0210:/bin/bash
Unit0301:concorderesident:1215:1001:Unit 301:/home/Unit0301:/bin/bash
Unit0302:concorderesident:1216:1001:Unit 302:/home/Unit0302:/bin/bash
Unit0303:concorderesident:1217:1001:Unit 303:/home/Unit0303:/bin/bash
Unit0304:concorderesident:1218:1001:Unit 304:/home/Unit0304:/bin/bash
Unit0305:concorderesident:1219:1001:Unit 305:/home/Unit0305:/bin/bash
Unit0306:concorderesident:1220:1001:Unit 306:/home/Unit0306:/bin/bash

(save the file, and then run the linux command newusers)
# newusers /root/batch-user-add.txt

I didn't find it somewhere in the dark on the internet. newusers is a linux command. And I am trying to follow the directions between that and the linked man pages of passwd and other related commands, and am trying to find out if it will A) do what I need it to do, and B) if I've got the syntax right.
newusers(8): update/create new users in batch - Linux man page
passwd(5): password file - Linux man page

I don't know how many other ways I can word my questions? I know I'm new to all this, but I HAVE been doing my homework and reading for days now, and trying to ask intelligent questions, only to be put down?

**hcvv** · 01-Mar-2011, 05:00

Sorry, some misunderstanding. But I do not have the tool newusers (and thus not it's man page) on my standard 11.2 system. Thus my idea was after reading:

I did some research and found that it should be possible to add them using a script, but there were so many changes whenever a possible script was posted that I had trouble following the message threads to get a coherent final script to use.

So far, here is what I have found, and I hope this works in Suse 11.3:
But it doesn't say anything about adding to more than one group? I know if I add thru YAST, it adds to users, and then by default adds to the additional group "video" (is this for them to be able to log in with the gui?)

However, the script I found shows one user

that you use some script found somewhere.

I will read through the man page you provided a link to after my lunch

**jthiatt08** · 01-Mar-2011, 05:20

I've never used the newusers command, so I would just use a custom script to add the users.

For example

Code:

#!/bin/bash

for USERS in $(cat /root/batch-user-add.txt)
do
  USER=`echo ${USERS} | cut -d ":" -f1`
  PASSWD=`echo ${USERS} | cut -d ":" -f2`
  UID=`echo ${USERS} | cut -d ":" -f3`
  ##Add more fields here...

  ##man useradd to learn about all the switches
  useradd ${USER} -p ${PASSWD} -u ${UID}
done

You can use the chage command to force a user to change their password

Code:

chage -d 0 Unit0106

Hiatt

**ken_yap** · 01-Mar-2011, 05:36

You should not be modifying passwd, shadow, group files directly. You should call useradd to do the work. Among other things it creates the home directory, puts initial files there and does various checks. It will also flag the account for a password change if wanted.

**hcvv** · 01-Mar-2011, 06:07

Originally Posted by jthiatt08

I've never used the newusers command, so I would just use a custom script to add the users.

For example

Code:

#!/bin/bash

for USERS in $(cat /root/batch-user-add.txt)
do
  USER=`echo ${USERS} | cut -d ":" -f1`
  PASSWD=`echo ${USERS} | cut -d ":" -f2`
  UID=`echo ${USERS} | cut -d ":" -f3`
  ##Add more fields here...

  ##man useradd to learn about all the switches
  useradd ${USER} -p ${PASSWD} -u ${UID}
done

You can use the chage command to force a user to change their password

Code:

chage -d 0 Unit0106

Hiatt

I would replace

Code:

USER=`echo ${USERS} | cut -d ":" -f1`
  PASSWD=`echo ${USERS} | cut -d ":" -f2`
  UID=`echo ${USERS} | cut -d ":" -f3`
  ##Add more fields here...

with

Code:

echo "$USERxiS" | IFS=':' read USER PASSWD UID GID INF HOME SHELL

Or even more radical:

Code:

while IFS=':' read USER PASSWD UID GID INF HOME
do      useradd $USER -p $PASSWD
         # more parameters and more statements
done </root/batch-user-add.txt

But those are all niceties.