User Accounts

You normally find three types of users on Linux systems: the super user, the day-to-day user, and the system user. Each type is essential to the smooth running of your system. Learning the differences between the three is essential if you are to work efficiently and safely within your Linux environment.

All users who access your system must have accounts on the system. Ubuntu uses the /etc/passwd file to store information on the user accounts that are present on the system. All users, regardless of their type, have a one-line entry in this file that contains their username (typically used for logging in to the system), an encrypted field for the password (which contains an X to denote that a password is present), a user ID (commonly ...

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