How to add new users on Linux

In Linux, you can manage user accounts through command-line tools or graphical applications. The most widely used command-line tools for creating users are adduser and useradd. Additionally, most Linux desktop environments and distributions offer graphical tools that serve as frontends for these command-line utilities.

These tools write user information to the /etc/passwd, /etc/group, and /etc/shadow files and create a user's home directory, populating it with necessary files from /etc/skel.

You can either manually add user information to these files or use dedicated tools like adduser, an interactive command-line tool found in most Linux distributions by default.

1. Open a terminal application.
2. Run the adduser command followed by the desired username as an argument.

   $ sudo adduser username

3. If prompted, enter the password for the current user.

   [sudo] password for user:

   Current user needs to have administrator privilege on the system.

4. The adduser tool will request additional user 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. Input the desired password for the new user and press [ENTER], twice.

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

6. Provide optional informational values or press [ENTER] to leave them blank and continue.

   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 that the information is accurate, allowing adduser to create the new user account.

   Is the information correct? [Y/n] y

   Manual: adduser(8) - Linux man page