*BSD News Article 71783


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From: dgy@rtd.com (Don Yuniskis)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Help deleting a user
Date: 23 Jun 1996 04:47:35 GMT
Organization: CICDO
Lines: 57
Message-ID: <4qii97$52b@baygull.rtd.com>
References: <31c5fba8.407993@news.intergate.bc.ca> <oq20j7wtv9.fsf@leto.microunity.com> <31CCCF32.888@www.play-hookey.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: seagull.rtd.com

In article <31CCCF32.888@www.play-hookey.com>,
Ken Bigelow  <kbigelow@www.play-hookey.com> wrote:
>Deborah Gronke Bennett wrote:
>> 
>>    I know this is a dumb question, but how do you erase a user?
>> 
>> Name your machine kaiwan009.kaiwan.com. Name the user aks. Stand back and wait
>> for someone to do it for you.
>
>I am truly sorry to see a post like this. All regulars to this NG are fully aware 

Lighten up!  I thought this was one of the few aks related posts that
actually took some of the edge off of the aks-insanity.

>that aks and his posts are fit only for the trash heap. But do you have to stoop to 
>his level?
>
>It was my sincere hope that the fuss and bother about aks had by now died down, and 
>that this newsgroup could revert to its more professional "normal" mode. Please 
>allow it to do so henceforth.
>
>The original question has been answered a few times already, but since you did not 
>include the original poster's name, I'll answer again, briefly. If you posted the 
>question yourself in an effort to make a joke, then I find it to be in extremely 
>poor taste.

Sheesh!

>To fully delete a user from your system, first use vipw (check the man page) to 
>edit the password file. Then, delete that user's directory in /usr/home and 
>mailfile(s) in /var/mail. You should also edit your /etc/group file to remove that 

As I've stated here previously, I suggest you *disable* the entry in
/etc/passwd and not *delete* it.  Likewise for the /etc/group stuff.
It makes record keeping a bit easier.  Especially if you have to do
a restore, etc.

You should also look through mail aliases, etc. if you want to be
thorough...

>entry. If this user has been permitted to create files in other directories, you 
>should find and remove them as well.

Yes, as I posted previously:
	find / -user foobar -print
to see just what goodies he may have created, and
	find / -user foobar -depth -exec rm {} \; -print
to get rid of them.  Note that you should make sure any
and all related file systems are mounted at the time...

>May this be the last post having anything to do with the "aks" idiocy!

Agreed!

BTW, how about limiting your posts to something like 70 columns??

Thx, --don