How to Create and Manage User Accounts in Ubuntu ​

Introduction ​

While running as the root user gives you complete control over a system and its users, it is also dangerous and possibly destructive. For common system administration tasks, it’s a better idea to add an unprivileged user and carry out those tasks without root privileges.

For tasks that require administrator privileges, there is a tool installed on Linux systems called sudo. Briefly, sudo allows you to run a command as another user, including users with administrative privileges. In this guide, you’ll learn how to create user accounts, assign sudo privileges, and delete users.

Create new User ​

sudo adduser newuser

New password:
Retype new password:
passwd: password updated successfully
Changing the user information for newuser
Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default
        Full Name []:
        Room Number []:
        Work Phone []:
        Home Phone []:
        Other []:
Is the information correct? [Y/n]

You will be required to respond to a series of questions:

• Assign and confirm a password for the new user.
• Enter any additional information about the new user. This is optional and can be skipped by pressing ENTER if you don’t wish to utilize these fields.
• Finally, you’ll be asked to confirm that the information you provided was correct. Press Y to continue.

Grant User Sudo Privileges ​

If your new user should have the ability to execute commands with root (administrative) privileges, you will need to give the new user access to sudo.

In order to add the user to a new group, you can use the usermod command:

usermod -aG sudo newuser

The -aG option tells usermod to add the user to the listed groups.

Login ​

Login as this newly created user

ssh newuser@< IP-ADDRESS >