{"id":343,"date":"2018-10-17T09:32:32","date_gmt":"2018-10-17T09:32:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/2018\/10\/17\/how-to-delete-a-user-on-ubuntu\/"},"modified":"2018-10-17T09:32:32","modified_gmt":"2018-10-17T09:32:32","slug":"how-to-delete-a-user-on-ubuntu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/2018\/10\/17\/how-to-delete-a-user-on-ubuntu\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Delete a User on Ubuntu"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"delete<\/p>\n

How do I delete a user from your Ubuntu Linux system? Such instances include when users leave the company or when their accounts become dormant for so long. In this tutorial, I will show you how to delete a user and home directory on Ubuntu 18.04.<\/p>\n

But first, we are going to carry out some pre-tasks before deleting the user and home directory. These tasks will include<\/p>\n

1) Locking the User account<\/p>\n

2) Killing any processes associated with the user3) Backing up the user’s home directory4) Removing any cron\/print jobs5) Deleting\/removing user accounts<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

1) Lock the User account<\/h2>\n

Begin by first locking the user’s account to deny them entry into the system. The syntax for this will be<\/p>\n

passwd -l <\/p>\n

For example<\/p>\n

passwd -l alice<\/p>\n

Output<\/p>\n

Locking password for user alice.
\npasswd: Success<\/p>\n

2) Kill all running processes of the User<\/h2>\n

After successfully locking the account, you need to find all the running processes attached to the user account and ‘kill’ them using their PID (Process IDs)
\nUsing the ps command, the syntax is<\/p>\n

ps -u <\/p>\n

For example<\/p>\n

ps -u alice<\/p>\n

Output<\/p>\n

PID TTY TIME CMD
\n 6561 pts\/0 00:00:00 bash
\n 6586 pts\/0 00:00:00 ps <\/p>\n

Using the top command, the syntax will be<\/p>\n

top -U <\/p>\n

For instance<\/p>\n

top -U alice<\/p>\n

Output<\/p>\n

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
\n 6561 alice 20 0 21196 5000 3224 S 0.0 0.5 0:00.03 bash
\n 6595 alice 20 0 40540 3748 3148 R 0.0 0.4 0:00.01 top <\/p>\n

To end or ‘kill’ all the running processes, use the killall command as shown<\/p>\n

killall -9 -u <\/p>\n

In our case, we shall have<\/p>\n

killall -9 -u alice <\/p>\n

-9 flag is the SIGKILL command. It tells the system to terminate the processes without cleaning up.
-u flag defines the username<\/p>\n

3) Backup user data before deleting<\/h2>\n

This is an optional step, but highly recommended should a need for reviewing a user’s account or files arise.
\nI decided to use tar utility to perform the backup. The syntax would be<\/p>\n

tar cvjf backup.tar.bz \/home\/username<\/p>\n

In our example, the syntax will be<\/p>\n

tar cvjf backup.tar.bz \/home\/alice<\/p>\n

Sample Output<\/p>\n

tar: Removing leading `\/’ from member names
\n\/home\/alice\/
\n\/home\/alice\/.bash_history
\n\/home\/alice\/.profile
\n\/home\/alice\/.bashrc
\n\/home\/alice\/.bash_logout <\/p>\n

4) Delete the user’s cron jobs<\/h2>\n

To delete the cron jobs of a user, run<\/p>\n

crontab -r -u alice<\/p>\n

To erase printer jobs run<\/p>\n

lprm alice<\/p>\n

5) Delete\/ remove user account and files<\/h2>\n

We’ve finally reached the last stage of removing or erasing user accounts from the system. The above command will remove both the user account and the home directory.<\/p>\n

userdel -r alice<\/p>\n

In this case, the user ‘Alice’ alongside the home directory will be purged. This is because we have used the -r flag.<\/p>\n

To delete the user only and retain the home directory, simply run<\/p>\n

userdel alice<\/p>\n

In this tutorial, we have briefly outlined the steps you need to take to delete a user and home directory from your system in a step-by-step manner. We hope you have taken note in case next time you are faced with such a scenario.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/h3>\n