Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 5 Administration Unleashed

Chapter 9. Managing Users and Groups

IN THIS CHAPTER

• What Are Users and Groups?
• Managing Users
• Managing Groups
• How It All Works
• Best Practices

With Red Hat Enterprise Linux, all users must enter a username and password combination to use the operating system and applications for security. Privileges and access to specific files and directories can be granted or denied based on a person’s username. Thus, part of an administrators’ duties is to manage their company’s database of users and groups as employees change, request more storage, and transfer to different departments. Although adding users and groups seems like a simple task on the surface, it does require forward planning and preparation for a large user group such as one for a large ...