Fedora Linux

4.6.4. Where Can I Learn More?

? The manpages for chkconfig , ntsysv , and init

4.7. Managing Users and Groups

In an age of viruses, worms, and identity theft, keeping information private and secure has taken on great importance. Managing user identity creates the framework for system securityeven on a single-user system, where a distinction is maintained between using the system as the normal user and using the system as the root user.

4.7.1. How Do I Do That?

Almost everyone identifies themselves as both an individual and as a member of several groups. Linux uses separate user and group identities to reconstruct this two-level structure inside the system.

For example, company employee Richard might be all of the following:

? A member of the IT department

? Located at the company's Toronto office

? The leader of the team putting together the big sales pitch to Acme, Ltd.

? Part of the Christmas party committee

? A player in the Tuesday evening company soccer league

(And that doesn't even touch on life outside of the company!)

The system administrator configures Richard's account to indicate his many involvements within the company. At the user level, the name richard is assigned to him, and a password and home directory are assigned. richard is then placed into the groups it , toronto , acmeproposal , christmas , and soccer .

Fedora Core extends this system using a scheme called user private group (UPG), which means that Richard also has his own private group, also named richard . UPG makes a lot of sense when you look at permissions.

4.7.1.1. Managing users graphically

The Fedora GUI tool for managing users and groups is system-config-users , which is accessed through the menu under System>Administration>'Users and Groups.' After you supply the root password, the window shown in Figure 4-8 will appear.

Figure 4-8. The Users and Groups configuration window

This window has two tabs, one for managing groups and one for managing users.

To add a user, click on the Add User icon. The window shown in Figure 4-9 will be displayed.

Figure 4-9. The Create New User window

Fill in each of the fields:

User Name

The account name (username) you wish to use (such as jane ). This is what the user will enter when she logs in to the system. It should be an opaque string (no spaces) and consist of letters, digits, dashes, underscores, and periods. Although you can use uppercase characters, traditional user names are all-lowercase for ease of typing.

Full Name

The actual name of the user, in upper- and lowercase ( Jane Smith ). This information is optional and is used for reference only.

Password and Confirm Password

Type the new user's password twice.

Login shell

For most users, this field should be left as is; it can always be changed (using chsh ) later. If you are creating a user account that will never be used for logging in (such as an account used exclusively for email access or file sharing), select /sbin/nologin for the shell.

Create home directory

This should almost always be left checked.

Create a private group for the user

This enables the Fedora User Private Group scheme (which is a great idea), so it should almost always be left checked.

Specify a user ID manually

This controls whether the numeric user ID will be automatically or manually assigned. The only time you would want to specify it manually is when you are configuring the same user ID on two systems. In that case, check the box and enter the user ID in the UID field; otherwise, leave it unchecked.

Once you have filled in all of these fields, click OK. You will be returned to the main User and Group configuration window ( Figure 4-8 ).

To edit a user, double-click on the user's name, or highlight the name and click the Properties icon. An edit window will appear with four tabs, enabling you to edit values that cannot be set during the creation of the account; Figure 4-10 shows each of these tabs.

Figure 4-10. The four tabs of the User Properties window

The four tabs are:

User Data

Contains fields similar to those in the Create New User dialog ( Figure 4-9 ).