shadow/man/newusers.8

.\"$Id: newusers.8,v 1.13 2004/12/12 20:31:57 kloczek Exp $
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.TH NEWUSERS 8
.SH NAME
newusers - update and create new users in batch
.SH SYNOPSIS
\fBnewusers\fR [\fInew_users\fR]
.SH DESCRIPTION
\fBnewusers\fR reads a file of user name and clear-text password pairs and
uses this information to update a group of existing users or to create new
users. Each line is in the same format as the standard password file (see
\fBpasswd\fR(5)) with the following exceptions.
.IP "\fIpw_passwd\fR" 10
This field will be encrypted and used as the new value of the encrypted
password.
.IP "\fIpw_age\fR"
This field will be ignored for shadow passwords if the user already exists.
.IP "\fIpw_gid\fR"
This field may be the name of an existing group, in which case the named
user will be added as a member. If a non-existent numerical group is given,
a new group will be created having this number.
.IP "\fIpw_dir\fR"
This field will be checked for existence as a directory and a new directory
with the same name will be created if it does not already exist. The
ownership of the directory will be set to be that of the user being created
or updated.
.PP
This command is intended to be used in a large system environment where many
accounts are updated at a single time.
.SH CAVEATS
The input file must be protected since it contains unencrypted passwords.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR passwd (1),
.BR useradd (8)
.SH AUTHOR
Julianne Frances Haugh (jockgrrl@ix.netcom.com)