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When I create a user with useradd (no option) I can later add his passwd by using passwd new_user.

How can I create his correct home directory (with Desktop and Templates inside) and all other parameters the user needs?

I mean how can I obtain the equivalent of adduser?

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You can use usermod to modify an existing account. However this will not populate the user's HOME directory as useradd --create-home does.

Instead, you have to do it yourself.

# Consider a user 'fred' user=fred skel=$(. /etc/defaults/useradd 2>/dev/null; echo "$SKEL") home=$(getent passwd "$user" | cut -d: -f6) gid=$(getent passwd "$user" | cut -d: -f4) mkdir -p -m755 "$home" cp -a "${skel:-/etc/skel}/." "$user" chown -R "$user":"$gid" "$home"

Missing XDG directories will be created as the user first logs in.

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  • I get errors on --> cp -a "${skel-/etc/skel}/." "$user" ... Commented Sep 13, 2018 at 7:22
  • @pietroletti found it. Mobile phone typo. Sigh. Commented Sep 13, 2018 at 7:58
  • what's the utility of the simple command: useradd new-user if I can't populate the home directory later? Commented Sep 14, 2018 at 8:20
  • @pietroletti why wouldn't you want to populate the home directory when you created the user with useradd? Commented Sep 14, 2018 at 8:56
  • that's just curiosity: if a command exist it should be for something -> if I do useradd new_user the system add a new user -> what's for if it's not directly possible to add a home to that user? --> what else I can do with a user who has not a home directory? Commented Sep 14, 2018 at 18:15

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