I started to learn linux and I came a cross problem I would like to ask. After I use useradd command in debian, I get new user with home directory. I check that directories from /etc/skel are copied and everything seems fine. But when I log to user with su - user I get only $ sign and I see that PS1 variable is not set, colours and other things. User created with adduser doesn't have this problem and If I check difference between .bashrc and .profile files for both users, there are the same. So why is this happening?
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When you use useradd you have to specify all sorts of stuff - default shell, home directory, etc. If you aren't seeing a normal bash prompt, I would assume that you didn't specify /bin/bash as the user's shell and it defaulted to /bin/sh or similar.
To be honest, useradd is great for when you are adding users programmatically via a script. Not so great for one-off adding a single user.
Much better to instead use adduser newusername ....
ivanivan
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adduseris good for scripted user creation too - just remember to use--disabled-passwordso it doesn't prompt for a password. You can set the password later withecho user:pass | chpasswd. – cas Feb 17 '18 at 00:23 -
Do you know of other things than the shell that must be set with
useradd, or do you have a reference explaining it?adduserprompts user questions that aren't raised during the part of the installation where the 'main' user gets created. I'd like to create a user similar to those 'main' users. – Johan Jan 25 '24 at 15:58
su - user? – Jeff Schaller Feb 16 '18 at 20:05