How to add new user in Linux

Users in Linux could be managed using command-line tools or via graphical applications. The most common command-line tools in Linux for user creation are adduser and useradd, while most desktop environments and Linux distributions will have a graphical tool which basically is just a frontend to these command-line tools.

All these tools will eventually write related user information in /etc/passwd, /etc/group and /etc/shadow files. They'll also create user home directory and populate the home directory with necessary files stored in /etc/skel.

adduser is an interactive command-line tool to add new users in Linux. You can run the command at the terminal with just a username as argument and follow along the interactive process to create a user.

1. Launch a terminal application.
2. Run adduser command with a username as argument.

   $ sudo adduser username

3. Enter password for current user if necessary.

   [sudo] password for user:

   Current user needs to have administrator privilege on the system.

4. adduser will add the user along with other details.

   Adding user `username' ...
   Adding new group `username' (1001) ...
   Adding new user `username' (1001) with group `username' ...
   Creating home directory `/home/username' ...
   Copying files from `/etc/skel' ...

5. Enter desired password for the user followed by [ENTER] twice.

   New password:
   Retype new password:
   passwd: password updated successfully

6. Enter some informational values (optional) or just press [ENTER] to keep blank and proceed.

   Changing the user information for username
   Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default
   	Full Name []:
   	Room Number []:
   	Work Phone []:
   	Home Phone []:
   	Other []:

7. Press Y and [ENTER] to confirm everything is correct for adduser to really create the user.

   Is the information correct? [Y/n] y

   More info about ''adduser:
   adduser(8) - Linux man page