Re: Debian-specific behavior: 'useradd -m' ?

["Roberto C. Sanchez" <roberto@familiasanchez.net>]

Quoting Matt England <mengland@mengland.net>:

> (I realize this may be a faq, but this 'useradd -m' is hard to google...)
>
> Summary:
>
> Is there a more-portable way to add users to a system then useradd(8)?
> Why does Debian's useradd(8) require a "-m" switch when other unix/linux
> systems that I have seen do not?
>
>
> Details:
>
> On non-Debian systems:
>
> $ useradd myname
>
> ...creates an a login named "myname" with a home directory of /home/myname
> (or whatever pathname format the system conf/template files specify).
>
> On at least some flavor of Debian systems (I tested with Debian3.1-based
> derivations), the home directory is *not* created unless one uses the "-m"
> switch as in:
>
> $ useradd -m myname
>
> Whenever I go add users now to systems, I first check to see if said system
> is a Debian one, then I make the choice above.  I'm not sure what "-m" does
> on non-Debian systems, if anything.
>
> -Matt

I just tried it on my Suse workstation (it's at school, I don't have a 
choice) and doing `useradd test` creates the user "test" and makes an 
entry in /etc/passwd, however it does not create the home directory.  
Using the -m flag results in the home directory being created.  From 
the Suse man page:

       -m, --create-home
              Create home directory for new user account.

Personally, however, I prefer the adduser and deluser utilities.

-Roberto

--
Roberto C. Sanchez
http://familiasanchez.net/~roberto