newusers 8 System Management Commands newusers update and create new users in batch newusers new_users newusers 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 passwd5 ) with the following exceptions: pw_passwd This field will be encrypted and used as the new value of the encrypted password. pw_age This field will be ignored for shadow passwords if the user already exists. pw_gid 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. pw_dir 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. This command is intended to be used in a large system environment where many accounts are updated at a single time. The input file must be protected since it contains unencrypted passwords. /etc/login.defs shadow password suite configuration login.defs5 , passwd1 , useradd8 .