5.0 Managing Users with YaST

During installation, you have chosen a method for user authentication , either local via /etc/passwd or (if a network connection is established), via NIS, LDAP, Kerberos or Samba (see Section 1.14.6, Users). You can create or modify user accounts and can change the authentication method with YaST at any time.

Every user is assigned a user ID (UID) which identifies him in the system. Apart from the users which can log in to your machine, there are also a number of system users for internal use only. Each user is assigned to one or more groups. Similar to system users, there are also system groups for internal use. For information about the Linux user and group concept, refer to Section 7.1, User Concept.

To administrate users or groups, start YaST and click Security and Users > User Management or click Security and Users > Group Management. The User and Group Administration dialog opens, showing a list of users or groups in the system.

The dialog provides similar functionality for user and group management. You can easily switch between the user and group administration view by choosing the appropriate option at the top of the dialog.

Filter options allow you to define the set of users or groups you want to modify: Click Set Filter to view and edit users according to certain categories, such as Local Users or LDAP Users, for instance (if you are part of a network which uses LDAP). With Set Filter > Customize Filter you can also set up and use a custom filter.

Figure 5-1 YaST User and Group Management