source: chapter04/addinguser.xml@ dd61c77

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<sect1 id="ch-preps-addinguser">
  <?dbhtml filename="addinguser.html"?>

  <title>Adding the LFS User</title>

  <para>When logged in as user <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem>,
  making a single mistake can damage or destroy a system. Therefore,
  the packages in the next two chapters are built as an unprivileged user.
  You could use your own user name, but to make it easier to set up a clean
  working environment, we will create a new user called <systemitem
  class="username">lfs</systemitem> as a member of a new group (also named
  <systemitem class="groupname">lfs</systemitem>) and run commands as &lfs-user; during
  the installation process. As <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem>,
  issue the following commands to add the new user:</para>

<screen><userinput>groupadd lfs
useradd -s /bin/bash -g lfs -m -k /dev/null lfs</userinput></screen>

  <variablelist>
    <title>This is what the command line options mean:</title>

    <varlistentry>
      <term><parameter>-s /bin/bash</parameter></term>
      <listitem>
        <para>This makes <command>bash</command> the default shell for user
        <systemitem class="username">lfs</systemitem>.</para>
      </listitem>
    </varlistentry>

    <varlistentry>
      <term><parameter>-g lfs</parameter></term>
      <listitem>
        <para>This option adds user <systemitem class="username">lfs</systemitem>
        to group <systemitem class="groupname">lfs</systemitem>.</para>
      </listitem>
    </varlistentry>

    <varlistentry>
      <term><parameter>-m</parameter></term>
      <listitem>
        <para>This creates a home directory for <systemitem
        class="username">lfs</systemitem>.</para>
      </listitem>
    </varlistentry>

    <varlistentry>
      <term><parameter>-k /dev/null</parameter></term>
      <listitem>
        <para>This parameter prevents possible copying of files from a skeleton
        directory (the default is <filename class="directory">/etc/skel</filename>)
        by changing the input location to the special null device.</para>
      </listitem>
    </varlistentry>

    <varlistentry>
      <term><parameter>lfs</parameter></term>
      <listitem>
        <para>This is the actual name for the created user.</para>
      </listitem>
    </varlistentry>

  </variablelist>

  <para>If you want to log in as &lfs-user; or switch to &lfs-user; from a
  non-&root; user (as opposed to switching to user &lfs-user;
  when logged in as &root;, which does not require the &lfs-user; user to
  have a password), you need to set a password of &lfs-user;.  Issue the
  following command as the &root; user to set the password:</para>

<screen role="nodump"><userinput>passwd lfs</userinput></screen>

  <para>Grant <systemitem class="username">lfs</systemitem> full access to
  all the directories under <filename class="directory">$LFS</filename> by making
  <systemitem class="username">lfs</systemitem> the owner:</para>

<screen><userinput>chown -v lfs $LFS/{usr{,/*},lib*,boot,var,etc,bin,sbin,tools}</userinput></screen>

<note><para>In some host systems, the following <command>su</command> command does not complete
  properly and suspends the login for the &lfs-user; user to the background.
  If the prompt "lfs:~$" does not appear immediately, entering the
  <command>fg</command> command will fix the issue.</para></note>

  <para>Next, start a shell running as user &lfs-user;. This can be done by
  logging in as &lfs-user; on a virtual console, or with the following
  substitute/switch user command:</para>

<screen role="nodump"><userinput>su - lfs</userinput></screen>

  <para>The <quote><parameter>-</parameter></quote> instructs
  <command>su</command> to start a login shell as opposed to a non-login shell.
  The difference between these two types of shells is described in detail in
  <filename>bash(1)</filename> and <command>info bash</command>.</para>

</sect1>