---
name: "adduser.conf"
section: "5"
platform: "linux"
package: "adduser"
version: "3.152"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux", "freebsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/adduser.conf"
---

# adduser.conf(5)

configuration file for adduser(8) and addgroup(8)

## NAME

/etc/adduser.conf - configuration file for [**adduser**(8)](/adduser/8.md) and [**addgroup**(8)](/addgroup/8.md)

## DESCRIPTION

The file */etc/adduser.conf* contains defaults for the programs [**adduser**(8)](/adduser/8.md), [**addgroup**(8)](/addgroup/8.md), [**deluser**(8)](/deluser/8.md) and [**delgroup**(8)](/delgroup/8.md). Each line holds a single value pair in the form *option* = *value*. Double or single quotes are allowed around the value, as is whitespace around the equals sign. Comment lines must have a hash sign (#) in the first column.

The valid configuration options are:

- **STDERRMSGLEVEL , STDOUTMSGLEVEL , and LOGMSGLEVEL**

  Minimum priority for messages logged to syslog/journal and the console, respectively. See **LOGGING** in [adduser(8)](/adduser/8.md). Defaults to *warn* for STDOUTMSGLEVEL and STDERRMSGLEVEL and *info* for LOGMSGLEVEL.

- **ADD\_EXTRA\_GROUPS**

  Setting this to something other than 0 will cause **adduser** to add newly created non-system users to the list of groups defined by **EXTRA\_GROUPS** (below). Defaults to *0*.

- **DIR\_MODE**

  The permissions mode for home directories of non-system users that are created by [**adduser**(8)](/adduser/8.md). Defaults to *0700*. Note that there are potential configurations (such as ~/user web services, or in-home mail delivery) which will require changes to the default. See also **SYS\_DIR\_MODE**.

- **DHOME**

  The directory in which new home directories should be created. Defaults to */home*.

- **DSHELL**

  The login shell to be used for all new users. Defaults to */bin/bash*.

- **EXTRA\_GROUPS**

  This is the space-separated list of groups that new non-system users will be added to. Defaults to *users*.

- **FIRST\_SYSTEM\_GID and LAST\_SYSTEM\_GID**

  specify an inclusive range of GIDs from which GIDs for system groups can be dynamically allocated. Defaults to *100* - *999*.

- **FIRST\_GID and LAST\_GID**

  specify an inclusive range of GIDs from which GIDs for non-system groups can be dynamically allocated. Defaults to *1000* - *59999*.

- **FIRST\_SYSTEM\_UID and LAST\_SYSTEM\_UID**

  specify an inclusive range of UIDs from which UIDs for system users can be dynamically allocated. Defaults to *100* - *999*. Please note that system software, such as the users allocated by the *base-passwd* package, may assume that UIDs less than 100 are unallocated.

- **FIRST\_UID and LAST\_UID**

  specify an inclusive range of UIDs from which UIDs for non-system users can be dynamically allocated. Defaults to *1000* - *59999*.

- **GID\_POOL**

  See **UID\_POOL**.

- **GROUPHOMES**

  If this is set to *yes*, the home directories will be created as */home/groupname/user*. Defaults to *no*. This option is **deprecated** and will be removed.

- **LAST\_SYSTEM\_GID** **LAST\_GID** **LAST\_SYSTEM\_UID** **LAST\_UID**

  See the **FIRST\_** variants of the option.

- **LETTERHOMES**

  If this is set to *yes*, then the home directories created will have an extra directory inserted which is the first letter of the loginname. For example: */home/u/user*. Defaults to *no*. This option is **deprecated** and will be removed.

- **NAME\_REGEX**

  Non-system user- and groupnames are checked against this regular expression. If the name doesn't match this regexp, user and group creation in [**adduser**(8)](/adduser/8.md) is refused unless **--allow-bad-names** is set. With **--allow-bad-names** set, weaker checks are performed. Defaults to the most conservative *^\[a-zA-Z\]\[a-zA-Z0-9\_-\]\*\\$?$*. See **SYS\_NAME\_REGEX** and **Valid names**, below, for more information.

- **QUOTAUSER**

  If set to a nonempty value, new users will have quotas copied from that user using *edquota -p QUOTAUSER newuser*. Defaults to *the empty string*.

- **RESERVE\_UID\_POOL and RESERVE\_GID\_POOL**

  Controls whether the UID and GID values that are listed in the pool files are truly reserved. See UID AND GID POOLS in the NOTES section. Defaults to *yes*.

- **SETGID\_HOME**

  If this is set to *yes*, then home directories for users with their own group (**USERGROUPS** = yes) will have the set-group-ID bit set. Note that this feature is **deprecated** and will be removed in a future version of [**adduser**(8)](/adduser/8.md). Please use **DIR\_MODE** instead. Defaults to *no*.

- **SKEL**

  The directory from which skeletal user configuration files will be copied. Defaults to */etc/skel*.

- **SKEL\_IGNORE\_REGEX**

  When populating the newly created home directory of a non-system user, files in SKEL matching this regex are not copied. Defaults to to *(.(dpkg\|ucf)-(old\|new\|dist)$)*, the regular expression matching files left over from unmerged config files.

- **SYS\_DIR\_MODE**

  The permissions mode for home directories of system users that are created by [**adduser**(8)](/adduser/8.md). Defaults to *0755*. Note that changing the default permissions for system users may cause some packages to behave unreliably, if the program relies on the default setting. See also **DIR\_MODE**.

- **SYS\_NAME\_REGEX**

  System user- and groupnames are checked against this regular expression. If the name doesn't match this regexp, system user and group creation in adduser is refused unless **--allow-bad-names** is set. With **--allow-bad-names** set, weaker checks are performed. Defaults to the most conservative *^\[a-zA-Z\_\]\[a-zA-Z0-9\_-\]\*\\$?$*. See **NAME\_REGEX**, above, and **Valid names**, below, for more information.

- **UID\_POOL and GID\_POOL**

  specify a file or a directory containing UID and GID pool files. See UID AND GID POOLS in the NOTES section. Both default to *empty*.

- **USERGROUPS**

  Specify whether each created non-system user will be given their own group to use. Defaults to *yes*.

- **USERS\_GID and USERS\_GROUP**

  Defines the groupname or GID of the group all newly-created non-system users are placed into. If **USERGROUPS** is *yes,* the group will be added as a supplementary group; if **USERGROUPS** is *no,*, it will be the primary group. If you don't want all your users to be in one group, set **USERGROUPS**=*yes*, leave **USERS\_GROUP** empty and set **USERS\_GID** to "-1". **USERS\_GROUP** defaults to *users*, which has GID 100 on all Debian systems since it's defined statically by the *base-passwd* package. It is a configuration error to define both variables even if the values are consistent.

## NOTES

### UID AND GID POOLS

Some installations desire that a non-system account gets preconfigured properties when it is generated. Commonly, the local admin wants to make sure that even without using a directory service, an account or a group with a certain name has the same numeric UID/GID on all systems where it exists.

To enable this feature, define configuration variables **UID\_POOL** (for user accounts) and/or **GID\_POOL** (for groups) in */etc/adduser.conf* and install the respective files in the configured places. The value is either a file or a directory. In the latter case all files named *\*.conf* in that directory are considered.

The file format is similar to */etc/passwd*: Text lines, fields separated by a colon. The values are username/groupname (mandatory), UID/GID (mandatory), comment field (optional, useful for user IDs only), home directory (ditto), shell (ditto).

It is possible to use the same file/directory for **UID\_POOL** and **GID\_POOL**.

If an account / group is created, [**adduser**(8)](/adduser/8.md) searches in all UID/GID pool files for a line matching the name of the newly created account and uses the data found there to initialize the new account instead of using the defaults. Settings may be overridden from the command line.

In the default configuration, UID and GID values listed in the pool will be reserved and thus not be used by the normal UID and GID selection processes. This is usually what you'd want. With the **RESERVE\_UID\_POOL** and **RESERVE\_GID\_POOL** configuration options, you can switch this behavior off if you want pooled UIDs and GIDs used by regular accounts. This might cause conflicts and cause your pool UIDs and GIDs to be used by accounts that are not in the pool.

## FILES

*/etc/adduser.conf*

## SEE ALSO

[**deluser.conf**(5)](/deluser.conf/5.md), [**addgroup**(8)](/addgroup/8.md), [**adduser**(8)](/adduser/8.md), [**delgroup**(8)](/delgroup/8.md), [**deluser**(8)](/deluser/8.md)