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User-Group & Permissions-Ownership

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110 views6 pages

User-Group & Permissions-Ownership

Uploaded by

ravi_kishore21
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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DevOps Shack

User/Group & Permissions/Ownership


Click Here To Enrol To Batch-6 | DevOps & Cloud DevOps
User and Group Management in Linux
Linux is a multi-user operating system, allowing multiple users to access the system
simultaneously. User and group management is essential for maintaining system security
and controlling access to files and resources.
Users
Types of Users
1. Root User: The root user is the superuser with unrestricted access to the system. The
root user's home directory is /root.
2. Regular Users: These are non-privileged users created by the root user or system
administrators. Each regular user has a unique username and a home directory
located in /home/username.
Creating Users
To create a new user, use the useradd command followed by the username:
sudo useradd john
After creating a user, set the password using the passwd command:
sudo passwd john
User Configuration Files
• /etc/passwd: Contains user account information. Each line represents a user.
plaintext
john:x:1001:1001:John Doe,,,:/home/john:/bin/bash
• /etc/shadow: Contains encrypted user passwords and account expiration
information. Only readable by the root user.
john:$6$abcd1234$abcdefghijklmnopqrstu:/home/john:/bin/bash
• /etc/group: Contains group information.
developers:x:1002:john
Groups
Groups allow administrators to manage permissions for multiple users simultaneously. Each
user can belong to one or more groups.
Creating Groups
To create a new group, use the groupadd command:
sudo groupadd developers
Adding Users to Groups
To add a user to a group, use the usermod command:
sudo usermod -aG developers john

User and Group Management Commands


• useradd: Adds a new user.
sudo useradd username
• passwd: Sets or changes a user's password.
sudo passwd username
• usermod: Modifies a user account. The -aG option adds the user to a group.
sudo usermod -aG groupname username
• groupadd: Adds a new group.
sudo groupadd groupname
• groups: Displays the groups a user belongs to.
groups username
• deluser: Deletes a user.
sudo deluser username
• delgroup: Deletes a group.
sudo delgroup groupname
Permissions and Ownership
Linux uses a permission model to control access to files and directories. Each file and
directory has an owner, a group, and permissions set for the owner, group, and others.
File Ownership
• Owner: The user who owns the file.
• Group: The group that owns the file.
To change file ownership, use the chown command:
sudo chown user:group filename
File Permissions
Permissions are represented by a string of characters and divided into three groups: owner,
group, and others.
plaintext
Copy code
-rwxr-xr--
• The first character indicates the file type (- for a regular file, d for a directory).
• The next three characters represent the owner's permissions.
• The following three characters represent the group's permissions.
• The last three characters represent the others' permissions.
Each set of permissions includes:
• r: Read
• w: Write
• x: Execute
Changing File Permissions
To change file permissions, use the chmod command. Permissions can be set using symbolic
or numeric modes.
Symbolic Mode:
• u: Owner
• g: Group
• o: Others
• a: All (owner, group, and others)
• +: Add permission
• -: Remove permission
• =: Set permission
Examples:
chmod u+rwx filename # Add read, write, and execute permissions for the owner
chmod g-w filename # Remove write permission for the group
chmod o=rx filename # Set read and execute permissions for others
Numeric Mode: Permissions can also be represented using octal numbers:
• r=4
• w=2
• x=1
Examples:
chmod 755 filename # Sets rwxr-xr-x (owner: rwx, group: r-x, others: r-x)
chmod 644 filename # Sets rw-r--r-- (owner: rw-, group: r--, others: r--)
Example Scenarios
Scenario 1: Create a New User and Assign to a Group
1. Create a new user named john:
sudo useradd john
2. Set the password for john:
sudo passwd john
3. Create a new group named developers:
sudo groupadd developers
4. Add john to the developers group:
sudo usermod -aG developers john
5. Verify that john is a member of the developers group:
groups john
Scenario 2: Change File Ownership and Permissions
1. Create a file named example.txt:
touch example.txt
2. Change the ownership of example.txt to john and the group to developers:
sudo chown john:developers example.txt
3. Set the permissions of example.txt to rwxr-xr-- (owner: rwx, group: r-x, others: r--):
chmod 754 example.txt
4. Verify the ownership and permissions of example.txt:
ls -l example.txt
Output:
-rwxr-xr-- 1 john developers 0 Aug 6 10:00 example.txt
Detailed Example with Commands
# Create a new user named alice
sudo useradd alice
# Set the password for alice
sudo passwd alice
# Create a new group named engineers
sudo groupadd engineers

# Add alice to the engineers group


sudo usermod -aG engineers alice

# Verify that alice is a member of the engineers group


groups alice

# Create a file named project.txt


touch project.txt

# Change the ownership of project.txt to alice and the group to engineers


sudo chown alice:engineers project.txt

# Set the permissions of project.txt to rw-rw-r--


chmod 664 project.txt

# Verify the ownership and permissions of project.txt


ls -l project.txt
Output:
-rw-rw-r-- 1 alice engineers 0 Aug 6 10:00 project.txt
Summary
User and group management in Linux allows administrators to control access to system
resources securely. The permission and ownership model provides a robust way to manage
file access, ensuring that users can only perform actions they are authorized to do.
Understanding these concepts and commands is essential for effective system
administration.

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