5.1 User and Group Administration Dialog

To administrate users or groups, start YaST and click Security and Users > User and Group Management. Alternatively, start the User and Group Administration dialog directly by running yast2 users & from a command line.

Figure 5-1 YaST User and Group Administration

Depending on the set of users you choose to view and modify with the dialog (local users, network users, system users), the main window shows several tabs. These allow you to execute the following tasks:

Managing User Accounts

From the Users tab, create, modify, delete or temporarily disable user accounts as described in Section 5.2, Managing User Accounts. Learn about advanced options like enforcing password policies, using encrypted home directories, using fingerprint authentication, or managing disk quotas in Section 5.3, Additional Options for User Accounts.

Changing Default Settings

Local users accounts are created according to the settings defined on the Defaults for New Users tab. Learn how to change the default group assignment, or the default path and access permissions for home directories in Section 5.4, Changing Default Settings for Local Users.

Assigning Users to Groups

Learn how to change the group assignment for individual users in Section 5.5, Assigning Users to Groups.

Managing Groups

From the Groups tab, you can add, modify or delete existing groups. Refer to Section 5.6, Managing Groups for information how to do this.

Changing the User Authentication Method

When your machine is connected to a network providing user authentication methods like NIS or LDAP, you can choose between several authentication methods on the Authentication Settings tab. For more information, refer to Section 5.7, Changing the User Authentication Method.

For user and group management, the dialog provides similar functionality. You can easily switch between the user and group administration view by choosing the appropriate tab at the top of the dialog.

Filter options allow you to define the set of users or groups you want to modify: On the Users or Group tab, click Set Filter to view and edit users or groups 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.

Depending on the filter you choose, not all of the following options and functions may be available from the dialog.