| Unlike Windows, Linux users must have an account. | | | | remembered passwords at first. But protecting your |
| This account is accorded permissions such as reading | | | | account and account information depends on your |
| and writing files and executing programs. Accounts | | | | unguessable passwords. |
| are combined into groups to simplify their | | | | When Linux creates your account it also creates a |
| management. Users who are members of a given | | | | directory whose name is easy to remember. If your |
| group may be assigned additional permissions that | | | | account name is lucy then your working directory is |
| smooth the process of accessing common files. Let's | | | | home/lucy . I'm leaving it up to you to find out the |
| take a closer look at how Linux handles these users. | | | | location of lucy's working directory for Windows |
| A future article examines permissions and groups. | | | | systems. |
| Linux provides two categories of users, ordinary | | | | Damn Small Linux shares an interesting feature with |
| users essentially restricted to working with files of | | | | many other Linux systems. The system administrator |
| their own creation, and the superuser, or root, who | | | | can provide new users with copies of some |
| administers the system and is allowed to do almost | | | | directories and folders by placing them in the /etc |
| anything. The real situation is of course somewhat | | | | skel directory before launching the adduser command. |
| more complex. For example, ordinary users may be | | | | How is the system administrator supposed to handle |
| accorded restricted access to additional files deemed | | | | creating dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of |
| to be of interest to everyone. The superuser can | | | | new users, for example at the beginning of the |
| assign some privileges to deputies reducing an | | | | semester? He or she won't have the time to |
| otherwise crushing workload. | | | | undertake this backbreaking task. And there is no |
| The root user is the only one authorized to run the | | | | way that the root password should be revealed to |
| adduser or the more complicated useradd command. | | | | the employee who is assigned this task. The answer |
| If you have downloaded Damn Small Linux you can | | | | is simple: write a program to create these new |
| test these commands on your Windows computer. In | | | | accounts. This program can even spiff up the |
| response to the adduser command Linux requests | | | | account creation interface and perhaps grab some |
| the user name, the password, and then a few | | | | necessary information from sources such as the |
| optional fields that may be skipped. An organization | | | | student registration file. |
| with many users has or should have a policy for | | | | Of course we don't want to create users without |
| composing user names. | | | | the possibility of removing them. The live process is |
| The password is a key element in protecting the | | | | fairly complicated and includes removing the user's |
| computer's security. We could easily write an article | | | | password from the /etc/passwd directory, removing |
| discussing the password and password selection. | | | | all files from the user directory, and other activities |
| Remember that Linux distinguishes between | | | | such as making backups of essential information. The |
| lower-case and upper-case letters. If you're new to | | | | next article discusses the related concepts of |
| computing you may try working with easily | | | | permissions and groups. |