You need to use the usermod command to change user name under a Linux operating systems. This command modifies the system account files to reflect the changes that are specified on the command line. Do not edit /etc/passwd file by hand or using a text editor such as vi. This page explains how to change or rename username in Linux using the usermod command.
Linux Change or Rename User Command Syntax
The syntax is as follows to rename by user name:
usermod -l login-name old-name
- We use the usermod command in Linux to rename user account. The name of the user will be changed from the old-name to login_name. Nothing else is changed. In particular, the user’s home directory name should probably be changed to reflect the new login name.
The syntax is as follows to rename by a UID (user ID):
usermod -u UID username
Where,
- The numerical value of the user’s ID (UID) . This value must be unique unless the -o option is used. The value must be non-negative. Values between 0 and 99 are typically reserved for system accounts. Any files which the user owns and which are located in the directory tree rooted at the user’s home directory will have the file user ID changed automatically. Files outside of the user’s home directory must be altered
manually.
List all users in Linux system
Type the following cat command:
cat /etc/passwd
One can use the grep command to filter out only user names:
grep -w '^username' /etc/passwd
grep -w '^jerry' /etc/passwd
Another option is to use the cut command:
cut -d: -f1 /etc/passwd
Sample outputs:
daemon bin sys sync games man lp mail news uucp proxy www-data backup .... .. .... vivek raj marlena tristan wendy rob systemd-coredump dnsmasq kernoops rtkit whoopsie usbmux cups-pk-helper nm-openvpn speech-dispatcher saned colord hplip geoclue pulse gnome-initial-setup gdm tcpdump nvidia-persistenced tss nm-openconnect vnstat lxd postfix
How to Change or Rename Username and UID in Linux
Let us see how to rename user login. First, make sure user name is not logged into the server and any other process is not running under the same user name. I also recommend that you backup any data or server files before changing user names.
View current user and group membership for user named tom
First get user identity using the id command:
id tom
Next use the grep command to grab login info about user named tom from the /etc/passwd file
grep '^tom:' /etc/passwd
See group info about user named tom using the groups command:
grep 'tom' /etc/group
groups tom
Find home directory permissions for user named tom, run the following ls command:
ls -ld /home/tom/
Finally, see all Linux process owned by user and group named tom using the ps command:
ps aux | grep tom
ps -u tom
Rename and change username from tom to jerry on Linux
Type the usermod command as follows:
# id tom
# usermod -l jerry tom
## Verify ###
# id tom
# id jerry
# ls -ld /home/tom
A note about running process
You may see an error as follows if tom is logged in and running jobs:
# usermod -l jerry tom
usermod: user tom is currently used by process 6886
You need to kill all Linux process owned by user named tom and forcefully logged them out of the system:
# pkill -u tom pid # pkill -9 -u tom # usermod -l jerry tom
Rename and change primary groupname from tom to jerry
Type the usermod command as follows:
# id tom
# groupmod -n jerry tom
## Verify it ###
# id tom
# ls -ld /home/tom
Sample outputs:
How to change user home directory from /home/tom/ to /home/jerry
The syntax is as follows:
# usermod -d /home/jerry -m jerry
# id jerry
# ls -ld /home/jerry
Sample outputs:
uid=1001(jerry) gid=1001(jerry) groups=1001(jerry) drwxr-xr-x 2 jerry jerry 4096 Apr 21 15:53 /home/jerry/
How to change user tom UID from 5001 to 10000
Type the usermod command as follows:
# id tom
# usermod -u 10000 tom
# id tom
Getting help about usermod command
You can pass the --help option to the usermod command. For instance, type the following command at the shell prompt in Linux:
usermod --help
| Options | Description |
|---|---|
| -c OR --comment | COMMENT new value of the GECOS field |
| -d OR --home | HOME_DIR new home directory for the user account |
| -e OR --expiredate | EXPIRE_DATE set account expiration date to EXPIRE_DATE |
| -f OR --inactive | INACTIVE set password inactive after expiration to INACTIVE |
| -g OR --gid | GROUP force use GROUP as new primary group |
| -G OR --groups | GROUPS new list of supplementary GROUPS |
| -a OR --append | append the user to the supplemental GROUPS mentioned by the -G option without removing the user from other groups |
| -h OR --help | display this help message and exit |
| -l OR --login | NEW_LOGIN new value of the login name |
| -L OR --lock | lock the user account |
| -m OR --move-home | move contents of the home directory to the new location (use only with -d) |
| -o OR --non-unique | allow using duplicate (non-unique) UID |
| -p OR --password | PASSWORD use encrypted password for the new password |
| -R OR --root | CHROOT_DIR directory to chroot into |
| -P OR --prefix | PREFIX_DIR prefix directory where are located the /etc/* files |
| -s OR --shell | SHELL new login shell for the user account |
| -u OR --uid | UID new UID for the user account |
| -U OR --unlock | unlock the user account |
| -v OR --add-subuids | FIRST-LAST add range of subordinate uids |
| -V OR --del-subuids | FIRST-LAST remove range of subordinate uids |
| -w OR --add-subgids | FIRST-LAST add range of subordinate gids |
| -W OR --del-subgids | FIRST-LAST remove range of subordinate gids |
| -Z OR --selinux-user | SEUSER new SELinux user mapping for the user account |
Conclusion
In this tutorial, you learned how to change or rename username and UID in Linux using the usermod command. Read man pages of usermod(8) and groupmod(8) commands for more information see this page here.
61 comment
gave me exactly what I was looking for. Thanks.
how to change the user name in linux
To change user name in linux just type the command (usermod -l Newname Oldname)
You might want to mention the possible additional tasks required to make a complete username changeover, such as changing the home directory name, the mail spool file name, or the group names. Otherwise an unexperienced sysadmin might use this command but break the user’s mail or other services.
killall -u old
id old
usermod -l new old
groupmod -n new old
usermod -d /home/new -m new
usermod -c “New Real Name” new
id new
man usermod – we can view all details about user modifications and Changes.
/etc/passwd – we can view all user ang group accounts, timestamps , bash.
usermod -l new old – to change the user name
usermod -d /home/new – to change the home directory
usermod -c – to change the jickos..,field..
Just what I needed. Thanks.
As with any potentially dangerous operation, you should back up the user’s data before the migration.
This will allow you to recover from the situation should the problem arise.
very useful. thanks!
open Suse
chenge username
usermod -l new old
Can we creat a user with the root permissions? if yes please explain how?
usermod -u 0 username
Can we creat a user with the root permissions? if yes please explain how?
I know root has 0 UID but when i try to assign 0 to any other user it gives me message that id is not unique.
This tips is awesome!!!
Thanks
Great ideal huh
How to give a user root privileges:
1. open terminal and type “visudo” or “sudo visudo” (you need root privileges)
2. find the line “root ALL=(ALL) ALL ”
3. under that line copy the “root ALL…” line but replace root with your username
example. “dan ALL=(ALL) ALL”
4. make sure you don’t remove any lines in that file
5. If you don’t want to use the visudo command, you could just use a text editor and edit the /etc/sudoers file.
Hope that was helpful
-dan
Thank you for that,
but could you help me with saving the file? When I’m on terminal and have written all the needed modifications, how do I save and exit?
Cheers
the editor you are using during that operation is vim
oh also, instead of adding a line in that file you could uncomment the line that starts with #%admin
so it looks like %admin ALL=(ALL) ALL
then save it
add any users to the admin group to give them admin privileges
same thing can be done for the”%sudo” line (although im not sure about it”
to change the login for ubuntu 9.04 I used:
# sudo usermod -l
How do yo rename an account in unix sun Solaris 10
ok mine challenge is different.i want to change from root to a user name.
i have tried all i know how.
please some one help me.
change id
As I recall, usermod only updates UIDs for files in the user’s home directory and the mail spool. You also have to consider files in /tmp or /var that can be persistent between user sessions, or even reboots depending on your OS. I just do this to ensure that all files have been changed,
find / -user 5001 -exec chown -h 10000 {} \;or maybe this,
find / -user 5001 | xargs chown -h 10000Use the ‘-h’ switch to chown so that it updates the ownership of symbolic links rather than what the symlink points to.
good hint! but i would rather use:
# find / -user 5001 -print0 | xargs -0 chown -h 10000
this handles files with spaces, backslashs or quotation marks correctly.
hi
to create user with non-unique UID
useradd -g groupname -o -u UID newusername
ie : useradd -g root -o -u 0 soundar
Thank you! That works great!!
its leads to a gconf error on rhel 5.
# useradd -g root -o -u 0 postgres
UX: useradd: ERROR: Inconsistent password files. See pwconv(1M).
# uname -a
SunOS hyd-BNW 5.10 Generic_139555-08 sun4u sparc SUNW,Sun-Fire-V240
Maybe you saved my life :P, thank you :).
Exactly what I was looking for.
Thanks!
In Ubuntu 10.04, when I tried it, it returned this:
$ sudo usermod -l new oldusermod: user old is currently logged in
This happened even when I was changing “old” to “new” from a different user account while “old” was logged out.
Any help please?
If you receive the error “usermod: user is currently logged in”, this is probably because you’re trying to change a username while their account is being used by one or more processes.
Getting around this problem is usually pretty straightforward:
– create a new user, e.g. I created an “admin” user, with root privileges
– restart your machine and log in as them (this is the best way to ensure no processes continue to run as the user whose name you want to change)
– retry the command (don’t forget you will probably need to run it with sudo, e.g. “sudo usermod -l “)
One way around this is the following:
First we become root, then we execute a command via nohup that will wait 30 seconds and then call the usermod command. Then log out of root and log out of your user account, and wait 1 minute. Then you should be able to log back in as your new user name.
$ sudo su
# nohup /bin/bash -c ‘sleep 30; usermod -l new_user_name -md /home/new_user_name old_user_name; touch ~/done.tmp’ &
# exit
$ exit
and do whatever else you need to do to log out…
It seems that you must restart your system in Ubuntu 10.04, login to the different user account and do the changes. Once you were logged in to the account to be changed, it will not work anymore. No idea why.
BTW: if you use WINE, look at the .reg files of WINE and change your /home folder name accordingly – or you will seriously bork Wine!
Wow just what I was looking for thanks.
Just remember to change the owner’s group (gid) as well (run this after the uid change)
# find / -group 5001 -print0 | xargs -0 chown -h :10000
“$ sudo usermod -l new old
usermod: user old is currently logged in”
I killed all his tasks. It works.
What’s the terminal file in unix ?
Does the terminal files created when a use log in ？
when iam changing username from root in linux with usermod -l [new username] [old username] it geting that user currently logged in
I want creat a user have id = 0. how can I do it??
when I delete dir home of user I can’t login this user. Why?
precise & useful
will this work if my home drive (corresponding to the USR-NAME being changed) is encrypted? I am a bit afraid. Can you reply on this please! Thanks in advance — GNB
guys, I made a adjustment in sudoers file and deleted the % in the group section. afterwards i cannt access the sudoers file anymore.
error my user do not have the permission to access.
can someone help
ubuntu 10.11
I want to rename the username in particular file.
example: demo.xml
can some one help me
how to change the username..I don’t no old username….
A system has an existing user kkline for Kathy Kline but she just got married and is now Kathy Morgan. You need to change her username, home directory name, and real name on the system. What command(s) would you use?
please provide the solution
Amazing response. That guided me through perfectly with just what i needed. Best strait to the point response! Thank you!
When i change the user name then automaticaly change the group name also. I just only change the user name. How can i do that?
After user created you can add group and execute below command
# groupadd goupname
# chown groupname:groupname DIRname -R
Ok, I changed my username and now i can’t ssh into said user from another machine. Why? Ssh says permission denied. Here is id fgsim
uid=1004(fgsim) gid=1004(fgsim) groups=1004(fgsim),1008(fgstudents)
I edited both the passwd and group file.
I use Fedora 16.
Did you also edit /etc/shadow and /etc/gshadow?
Also make sure your new username/group is in sshd_config for allowed groups.
usermod not found? so i am using a zsh and i can’t find usermod, its not even in man — can’t find it in bash either. am i missing something?
I am not a novice, but clearly not learned enough to fix this damaging issue I just created, so thanks in advance for your help…
1. I followed these instructions to a tee in order to change my old username into a new one: https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-change-rename-user-name-id
2. I also continued with specific home directory intsructions found here: http://jesin.tk/change-home-directory-in-linux/)…
Now my username, group and home folder are all changed and permissions/ownership correct, as well as new user has been set to new home. I even ran the `cp -f /home/username/* /home/new_home_dir/` to copy over all home files to new folder. However, this didn’t work so well in my favor…
PROBLEM
——-
I can login, I can access files in home, but ALL of my desktop, settings and home files are gone. Back to square 1, with only 1 clue in my new home folder: two files by the name of README and *Access-Your-Private-Data.desktop*.
**Problem Key:**
Old username: `OLD`
New username: `NEW`
New group: `NEWG1`
My User ID Info:
> uid=1000(NEW) gid=1000(NEWG1)
> groups=1000(NEWG1),4(adm),24(cdrom),27(sudo),30(dip),46(plugdev),107(lpadmin),124(sambashare)
UID `1000` has not changed even though the username changed.
OLD was the user `1000`, as was `OLD` the home directory name.
I changed the username to `NEW`, same UID (`1000`), and changed `OLD` group name to `NEWG1`.
I did all of this from command line, by hitting `Ctrl+Alt+F1` from the login screen, then logging into a secondary account (not the `OLD` or the `NEW` account).
MAIN ISSUE IN NEED HELP WITH:
—————————–
Now, I can login all day long. However, my `OLD` account, which has been changed to `NEW`, looks like a brand new user account, and all of my data and files and configuration are gone when logged in using the `NEW` account. However, in the `/home/NEW` folder, I have these files:
Access-Your-Private-Data.desktop
README.txt
But no files such as:
.ecryptfs
.private
…etc
When trying to open Access-Your-Private-Data.desktop, terminal opens and closes instantly. So nothing happens. And when executing `ecryptfs-mount-private` I get the following;
$ ecryptfs-mount-private
ERROR: Encrypted private directory is not setup properly
QUESTIONS:
———-
– How do I access the encrypted files and move, delete or alter them?
– Where did all of my home files and config from `OLD` user go, if all
– I did was change the username and group name, as well as home folder
name (and even assign user to folder), and copy everything?
– If it’s not encrypted, where did it all go?
– Can I keep going and get it fixed with `NEW` everything?
– Or, Can I backtrack properly to `OLD` everything?
I looked in `/media/OLD`, but nothing is in there.
I looked in `/tmp` but nothing like ‘*ecryptfs.123XYZ*’ is in there except *ssh-123XYZ* and *hsperfdata_NEW*.
This guys made it look easy on what to do with the file: http://hgoshawknest.wordpress.com/2010/04/16/how-to-recover-crypted-home-directory-in-ubuntu/
But again, this is not working for me.
CURRENT STEPS:
————–
I am setting up a boot USB with Ubuntu 14, in hopes to follow directions on mounting properly (as in described here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1810825), but I am not sure I am working correctly.
Thanks in advance! This is amazingly important to recover my old setup, regardless of damn username and home folder name.
Please help with this if you can.
All the best!!!!
PS – Here is a list of references that helped me screw up (I mean execute) the above:
RESOURCES:
———-
1. https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-change-rename-user-name-id/
2. http://jesin.tk/change-home-directory-in-linux/
3. http://www.ubuntututorials.com/change-username-ubuntu-12-04/
4. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2103420
5. http://askubuntu.com/questions/34074/how-do-i-change-my-username
6. http://bodhizazen.net/Tutorials/Ecryptfs#Live
7. http://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ecryptfs-utils/+bug/1028532
8. http://askubuntu.com/questions/190404/changed-username-now-i-cannot-log-on-or-view-my-previous-files
9. http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/jaunty/man8/usermod.8.html
Thanks!
there is a lot of config files wich stores full path /home/olduser/…
so you also have to go thru all and replace into /home/newuser/…
or do that stuff with one command
cd /home/newuser && find ./ -type f -readable -writable -exec sed -i “s/\/home\/olduser/\/home\/newuser/g” {} \;
Very clear, as usual.Thank you Vivek
Perfect! Very helpful. I followed the steps to change username, group, and home folder. Worked like a charm. Thank you so much Vivek!
Mention killing of processes before mentioning usermod -l login-name user-name.
It executed usermod -l, before killing processes. It was giving trouble.
But thankfully, I reverted to previous username, killed processes and started afresh. That worked.