userdel [-r]

Name

userdel - delete a user account

Synopsis

# userdel [-r] <login>

Description

This program deletes a user account in the system.

This program must be run as root.

Options

• -r, --remove: Remove the home directory for this user if the directory exists.

Exit Values

• 0 - Success
• 1 - Couldn't update the password file
• 6 - Specified user doesn't exist
• 12 - Couldn't remove home directory

Files

• /etc/passwd - user information (such as UID and GID) in this file is deleted.
• /home/ - user home directory is deleted if the -r flag is specified.

Examples

# userdel alice
# userdel -r alice
# userdel --remove alice

See Also

• usermod(8)
• useradd(8)