Adding a new user on Ubuntu 18.04

Table of contents

Get Going

After creating a linux server, the first thing we should do is to create a non-root user. Because, running as the root user gives complete control over a system and users, which is really dangerous. To create a non-root user we need to follow below instructions.

Prerequisites

• Access to your Ubuntu System as root or via sudo command is required.

Step 1- Login to server using ssh:

Use below command to Login to your ubuntu server from terminal. Use powershell or git bash from windows pc.

// replace "xx.xx.xx.xx" with your server ip
$ ssh root@xx.xx.xx.xx

Once you are logged in as root, we’re prepared to add the new user account that we will use to log in from now on.

Step - 2: Create user:

Create a new user with this command below:

// `sudo` is optional if you are signed in as `root` user
$ sudo adduser sammy

ou will be asked some questions like new password, retype new password, full name and some other optional informations. This example creates a new user called sammy, but you should replace it with a username that you like.

Now that you have created a new user sammy, you can login to your server with the newly created user:

// replace "xx.xx.xx.xx" with your server ip
$ ssh sammy@xx.xx.xx.xx

If you need your new user to have access to administrative functionality, continue on to the next section.

Granting a User Sudo Privileges

If your new user should have the ability to execute commands with root (administrative) privileges, you will need to give the new user access to sudo. With below command you can see groups of your new user:

$ groups sammy
// Output: sammy : sammy

In order to add the user to a new group, we can use the usermod command:

// this will add `sammy` to `sudo` group
$ usermod -aG sudo sammy

Deleting a User

You can delete the user itself, without deleting any of their files, by typing the following command as root:

$ sudo deluser sammy

To delete the users home directory along with the user, use the following command:

$ deluser --remove-home sammy

For more details. please follow below reference links.

Referrences:

1. Ubuntu 18.04 (Digitalocean)
2. Ubuntu 16.04 (Digitalocean)
3. My previous blog post