Yrurtj

How can I create a new system user, an exact copy of another one (having the same groups, permissions, privileges and settings), but with different username, password and home directory?

This script will do it:

#!/bin/bash

SRC=$1

DEST=$2



SRC_GROUPS=$(id -Gn ${SRC} | sed "s/${SRC} //g" | sed "s/ ${SRC}//g" | sed "s/ /,/g")

SRC_SHELL=$(awk -F : -v name=${SRC} '(name == $1) { print $7 }' /etc/passwd)



useradd --groups ${SRC_GROUPS} --shell ${SRC_SHELL} --create-home ${DEST}

passwd ${DEST}

It gets the source user's groups (not including the group that's the same as their login) and shell, then creates a new user with the same shell and secondary groups.

Usage: clone-user src_user_name new_user_name

There is no error checking, it's just a quick and dirty clone script.

• Edit /etc/passwd and duplicate the line of the user you want an exact copy of. Modify the logon name, real name and the home directory.


• Edit /etc/shadow and again duplicate the line of the original user. Modify the logon name.


• Finally execute passwd newuser to modify the password.

Be aware that system wise both users are the same (same UID), so one will be able to enter the other one's home directory and modify at will.

For Linux Mint 18 Mate

Based on Mike Anderson's script, I made one that asks questions about the new user, the old user, the new password, and then copies the old user's home directory and replaces all instances of the old user's name in the new home directory with the new user's name.

The main difference in my script regarding the useradd line is that the passwd fails in Linux Mint 18, replaced by chpasswd. To get the password to work I had the create a new line: echo $newuser:$newpassword | chpasswd.

Another difference is that I couldn't get --create-home to work so I just used mkdir in a new line instead.

Watch out if you have a huge old user's home directory.

Take what you need and leave the rest. You are responsible for any code you copy -- make backups!

#!/bin/bash



# clone a user

# usage:

# if you named this as below then

# change to the directory and run this command

# sudo bash clone-user.sh



echo "============="

echo "this script will create a new user"

echo "based on an existing user's data"

echo 

echo "You will be shown a list of users who can currently log on"

echo "Remember which user you would like to clone."

echo "You will be asked for the new user's name, their password"

echo "and the old user to clone".

echo "============="

echo 



echo -n "New user's name: "

read newuser



echo -n "New user's password: "

read newpassword



echo 



echo "Current users you can clone:"

echo "----"

awk -F'[/:]' '{if ($3 >= 1000 && $3 != 65534) print $1}' /etc/passwd

echo 



echo -n "Old user to clone: "

read olduser



echo 

echo "You have selected: "

echo "----"

echo "new user: $newuser"

echo "new user password: $newpassword"

echo "old user: $olduser"

echo 



olduser_GROUPS=$(id -Gn ${olduser} | sed "s/${olduser} //g" | sed "s/ ${olduser}//g" | sed "s/ /,/g")

olduser_SHELL=$(awk -F : -v name=${olduser} '(name == $1) { print $7 }' /etc/passwd)



echo "old user groups: "

echo "----"

echo $olduser_GROUPS

echo "olduser shell: "

echo $olduser_SHELL

read -rsp $'Press any key to continue or ctrl-c to exit...n' -n1 key



useradd --groups $olduser_GROUPS --shell $olduser_SHELL $newuser



echo $newuser:$newpassword | chpasswd



read -rsp $'ready to make home direcoty -- ctrl-c to exit...n' -n1 key



mkdir /home/$newuser

chown -R $newuser:$newuser /home/$newuser



echo 

echo "Script should be done now."

echo 

echo "Do you see your new users name below?"

echo 

awk -F'[/:]' '{if ($3 >= 1000 && $3 != 65534) print $1}' /etc/passwd



echo 

echo "We are now going to copy the old user's home folder to the new user"

echo "then change ownership to the new user"

echo 

read -rsp $'Ready to copy home folder --- or ctrl-c to exit...n' -n1 key



rsync -aPv /home/$olduser/. /home/$newuser/

chown -R --from=$olduser $newuser:$newuser /home/$newuser



echo 

echo "Now we are going to change the names of files and folders to the new user"

echo 



grep -rlI $olduser /home/$newuser/ . | sudo xargs sed -i 's/$olduser/$newuser/g'



echo 

echo "Done now."

echo 

read -rsp $'Press any key to exit...n' -n1 key

echo 

echo 

Thanks to everyone in the world who helped me with this script.
John in Oregon

As you know , Unix users as UIDs not name , For exampel : mohsen known as 1001 or group mohsen known as 1001.

You have to write an script and do step by step the following steps:

1. Find uid and gid of the given user


2. Find its home directory.


3. Find groups whom user is member of them.


4. Read /etc/suduers and state of your user.


5. It's very important to you distinguish between hidden files, link files , garbage files, and files related to your native machine.


6. According to previous number compress its home dir.


7. Crate a meta dir according to other spec such as configurations and so on.


8. 
   scp on your target.


9. Of course, uncompress and use of home dir is itself has a big concept.

NOTE: Don't use script and use above notes step by step. Even you can insert to above.

John in Oregon! Great script thumbs up!

Try this command

useradd -N -g gid -G gid2,gid3 -m