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. At the same time, most desktop environments and Linux distributions will have a graphical tool that is just a frontend to these command-line tools.

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

You can manually add user information to these files to add new users in Linux or use dedicated tools such as adduser. adduser is an interactive command-line tool available by default in most Linux distributions.

Graphical methods to create user for different Linux distributions:

Steps to add new user on Linux:

  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
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