Recipe 8.7. Deleting a User
8.7.1 Problem
You need to delete a user, and you want
to track down all the files that belong to the user.
8.7.2 Solution
Use userdel to delete the account, and use
find to locate the files belonging to the user.
To delete a user:
# userdel aborg
The user cannot be logged in or running any processes for
userdel to work.
userdel removes the user from all system account
files (/etc/passwd, etc/shadow, /etc/group), but
it does not touch files owned by the user. To remove the
user's home directory and mail spool, add the
-r flag:
# userdel -r aborg
Other files, such as
crontabs and data files
outside the home directory, will have to be hunted down separately:
# find / -uid 1200
Discussion
The politics and policies around terminating
someone's account are sensitive. If this is a home
system, do whatever you want. If it's a commercial
system, make sure you understand your company's
policies. It's always a good idea to remove or lock
the account of any employee who is terminated. Then back up the
employee's files.
8.7.3 See Also
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