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.

       --only-if-empty
              Only remove if no members are left.

       --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 Default configuration file for deluser and delgroup

       /usr/local/sbin/deluser.local
              Optional custom add-ons.

SEE ALSO

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