NAME

       deluser, delgroup - remove a user or group from the system

SYNOPSIS

       deluser [options] [--force] [--remove-home] [--remove-all-files] [--backup] [--backup-to DIR] user

       deluser --group [options] group
       delgroup [options] [--only-if-empty] group

       deluser [options] user group

   COMMON OPTIONS
       [--quiet] [--system] [--help] [--version] [--conf FILE]

DESCRIPTION

       deluser  and  delgroup  remove  users  and  groups  from the system according to command line options and
       configuration information in /etc/deluser.conf and /etc/adduser.conf.  They are friendlier front ends  to
       the  userdel and groupdel programs, removing the home directory as option or even all files on the system
       owned by the user to be removed, running a custom script, and other features.  deluser and  delgroup  can
       be run in one of three modes:

   Remove a normal user
       If called with one non-option argument and without the --group option, deluser will remove a normal user.

       By  default,  deluser  will  remove  the user without removing the home directory, the mail spool  or any
       other files on the system owned by the user. Removing the home directory and mail spool can  be  achieved
       using the --remove-home option.

       The  --remove-all-files  option  removes  all  files  on  the  system owned by the user. Note that if you
       activate both options --remove-home will have no effect because all files including  the  home  directory
       and mail spool are already covered by the --remove-all-files option.

       If  you  want  to  backup  all files before deleting them you can activate the --backup option which will
       create a file username.tar(.gz|.bz2) in the directory specified by the --backup-to option (defaulting  to
       the  current  working directory). Both the remove and backup options can also be activated for default in
       the configuration file /etc/deluser.conf. See deluser.conf(5) for details.

       If you want to remove the root account (uid 0), then use the  --force  parameter;  this  may  prevent  to
       remove the root user by accident.

       If  the  file  /usr/local/sbin/deluser.local  exists, it will be executed after the user account has been
       removed in order to do any local cleanup. The arguments passed to deluser.local are:
       username uid gid home-directory

   Remove a group
       If deluser is called with the --group option, or delgroup is called, a group will be removed.

       Warning: The primary group of an existing user cannot be removed.

       If the option --only-if-empty is given, the group won't be removed if it has any members left.

   Remove a user from a specific group
       If called with two non-option arguments, deluser will remove a user from a specific group.

OPTIONS

       --conf FILE
              Use FILE instead of the default files /etc/deluser.conf and /etc/adduser.conf

       --group
              Remove a group. This is the default action if the program is invoked as delgroup.

       --help Display brief instructions.

       --quiet
              Suppress progress messages.

       --system
              Only delete if user/group is a system user/group. This  avoids  accidentally  deleting  non-system
              users/groups. Additionally, if the user does not exist, no error value is returned. This option is
              mainly for use in Debian package maintainer scripts.

       --backup
              Backup all files contained in the userhome and the mailspool-file to a file  named  /$user.tar.bz2
              or /$user.tar.gz.

       --backup-to
              Place  the backup files not in / but in the directory specified by this parameter. This implicitly
              sets --backup also.

       --remove-home
              Remove the home directory of the user and its mailspool. If --backup is specified, the  files  are
              deleted after having performed the backup.

       --remove-all-files
              Remove  all  files from the system owned by this user. Note: --remove-home does not have an effect
              any more. If --backup is specified, the files are deleted after having performed the backup.

       --version
              Display version and copyright information.

RETURN VALUE

       0      The action was successfully executed.

       1      The user to delete was not a system account. No action was performed.

       2      There is no such user. No action was performed.

       3      There is no such group. No action was performed.

       4      Internal error. No action was performed.

       5      The group to delete is not empty. No action was performed.

       6      The user does not belong to the specified group. No action was performed.

       7      You cannot remove a user from its primary group. No action was performed.

       8      The required perl-package 'perl modules' is not installed. This package is required to perform the
              requested actions. No action was performed.

       9      For removing the root account the parameter "--force" is required. No action was performed.

FILES

       /etc/deluser.conf

SEE ALSO

       deluser.conf(5), adduser(8), userdel(8), groupdel(8)

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright  (C)  2000  Roland Bauerschmidt. Modifications (C) 2004 Marc Haber and Joerg Hoh.  This manpage
       and the deluser program are based on adduser which is:
       Copyright (C) 1997, 1998, 1999 Guy Maor.
       Copyright (C) 1995 Ted Hajek, with a great deal borrowed from the original Debian adduser
       Copyright (C) 1994 Ian Murdock.  deluser is free software; see the GNU General Public Licence  version  2
       or later for copying conditions.  There is no warranty.