You can also unlock the user with option -U: sudo usermod -U username 7. A locked user cannot log in to the system. You can lock a user account in Linux with usermod command option -L. This is why you should use the append option -a so that the user is added to the new group additionally and not removed from its previous groups. It’s because if you use only -G option, it will replace the user groups with the new group you provided. sudo usermod -aG group_name usernameĭid you notice that I used option -aG here and not just -G. If you want to add a user to the sudoer list, all you have to do is to add the user to the sudo group. This is perhaps the most common usage of the usermod command. sudo usermod -g new_default_group_name username 5. It would be good idea to change the default user group as well. This is particularly helpful when you have changed the user name. You can also change the default group of a user. Let’s say you want to change the login shell to zsh, here’s what you could do: sudo usermod -s /bin/zsh username 4. You can also change the default shell of a user with usermod command. rw-rw-r- 1 myuser myuser 0 Jan 17 11:15 myfile.txt rw-rw-r- 1 myuser myuser 0 Jan 17 11:15 morefile.txt Here’s an example: sudo usermod -md /home/mynewhome ls -l /home/mynewhome/ Apart from that, it will also move the content of the old home directory to the new home directory with correct file permissions and ownership. This way, it will create the new home directory if it doesn’t exist.

Keep in mind that it will change the home directory even if the directory doesn’t exist but it will not create it on its own.Ī better way to change the home directory of the user is to use -m option with -d.

You can change the home directory of the user to another directory. You’ll have to manually change the home directory and mail spool. Keep in mind that apart from the user name, nothing else changes on its own. You can change the username with the option -l of usermod command: sudo usermod -l new_username old_username Since you are dealing with user account management, you must be either root or have sudo rights to run the usermod command. 8 Practical examples of the usermod command You can add the user to different groups or lock the account. You can change the home directory and shell of the user. The usermod (short for user modification) enables you to modify various aspects of a user account. You can change the user account settings with usermod command in Linux.

You can create a new user with useradd command but if you mis-configured the account, you don’t necessarily have to delete the user.

Linux usermod g