Manage users and groups

Documentation > Working with CorneliOS > Manage users and groups

Users, administrators and the superuser (root)

There can be three different kinds of users on a CorneliOS system: superusers, administrators and CorneliOS users.

The superuser is always named "root", this user can make all kinds changes to the system - including harmful ones. Therefore it's not recommended to use this user account for daily work, you should only use it for administration tasks. The CorneliOS "root" user is not the "root" user of the underlying UNIX-like operating system, and for security reasons you should never use the same password for both accounts.

CorneliOS users are simple system users. A user can only do changes in his/her own directory, unless otherwise allowed by access rights. Each user has an own home directory which is located here:

/home/user

Administartors are "sudoers", such a user can make changes to files and directories owned by all other users, except root. Administrators can also add, modify and delete other users, except for the root account. A CorneliOS user becomes an administrator if he/she is listed in the sudoers file:

/etc/sudoers

The sudoers file can only be modified by root (unless access rights have been changed), which means that only the superuser can create or remove administrators. Using this file it's also possible to turn a user into an administrator for only a very short time period, which can be very useful in some situations.

Warning: do not mess around with the sudoers file access rights, as this might allow simple users to turn themselves into administrators!

How to add a new user

Log into the system as root or using an administrator account. Open the "User Manager", then enter the required information in the the "Add a new user" box. Click "add" to create your new user.

How to modify a user (or change the user password)

Log into the system as root or using an administrator account. Open the "User Manager", then find the user you'd like to modify in the user list. Click on the pencil, then make your changed and finish by clicking the "update" or "save" button.

How to remove a user

Log into the system as root or using an administrator account. Open the "User Manager", then find the user you'd like to modify in the user list. Click on the red "delete" icon.

Related files

Users and groups are stored inside the following files (note that password hashes are inside the "shadow" file and not in "passwd", just like on UNIX-like systems):

/etc/group (groups)
/etc/passwd (user accounts)
/etc/profile (additional information)
/etc/shadow (passwords)
/etc/sudoers (administrators)

CIOS Communities

Note that the CIOS Community Layer does not use the CorneliOS user database for it's users, CIOS requires and SQL database and stores its users inside an SQL table.