USERDEL(L)                                             USERDEL(L)



NAME
       userdel - Delete a user account and related files

SYNOPSIS
       userdel [-r] login

DESCRIPTION
       The  userdel  command  modifies  the system account files,
       deleting  all  entries  that  refer  to  login.  If  USER-
       GROUPS_ENAB is set to yes in /etc/login.defs, then userdel
       will also remove entries in /etc/group that refer to login
       if,  and  only  if,  there  are  no  members of that group
       listed, or the only member is login.  The named user  must
       exist.

       -r     Files  in the user's home directory will be removed
              along with the home directory itself and the user's
              mail  spool.   Files  located in other file systems
              will have to be searched for and deleted  manually.

FILES
       /etc/passwd - user account information
       /etc/shadow - secure user account information
       /etc/group - group information
       /etc/login.defs - login configuration file

EXIT VALUES
       0    - success
       1    - can't update password file
       2    - bad command syntax
       6    - specified user doesn't exist
       8    - user currently logged in
       10   - can't update group file
       12   - can't remove home directory

CAVEATS
       userdel  will  not  allow  you to remove an account if the
       user is currently logged in.  You must  kill  any  running
       processes  which  belong to an account that you are delet-
       ing.  You may not remove any  NIS  attributes  on  an  NIS
       client.  This must be performed on the NIS server.

SEE ALSO
       chfn(n),  chsh(h),  groupadd(d), groupdel(l), groupmod(d),
       passwd(d), useradd(d), usermod(d), login.defs(s)

AUTHOR
       Julianne Frances Haugh (jfh@austin.ibm.com)



                                                       USERDEL(L)