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From: fcrary@rintintin.Colorado.EDU (Frank Crary)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: removing a user
Date: 16 Apr 1997 02:45:37 GMT
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Lines: 20
Message-ID: <5j1egh$7fk@lace.colorado.edu>
References: <01bc49d8$83b56cc0$e60862ce@zero.super-highway.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: rintintin.colorado.edu
NNTP-Posting-User: fcrary
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:39144
In article <01bc49d8$83b56cc0$e60862ce@zero.super-highway.net>,
GoViL <govil@beavisandbutthead.com> wrote:
>ok... this sounds dumd even to me.... but how do I REMOVE a user from the
>system? I can add then just fine, but say it was only temporary, & I want
>them gone! Thanks!
I'd try brute force and ignorance. Edit the /etc/passwd file and
delete the line containing the user's name. Then remove the
user's home directory by hand, with rm -r * and rmdir. That should
keep them from loging in and free up the disk space they were
using. That probably won't remove all references to the user
on your system, there is probably a better way to do it, and
it's possible that a sharp user could still find some way to
retain access (I'm not exactly sure how ppp works, for example,
and the process I describe might leave a security hole...) But
this is a quick and dirty way to remove a user. (Of course, you
have to be root to do this, so use su.)
Frank Crary
CU Boulder