Basics of User and Group Management

Everyone on Linux server requires an user account. Every account has its rights and privileges associated with it, which vary depending on the command and the directory. Maintaining and Organizing each user account can be difficult if you have large number of users in an organization, so Linux user groups are organized into groups. While default users are member of their default groups, users can be organize into new groups, and rights and priviledges varies differently by group.

In Red Hat Linux, user accounts are organized in /etc/passwd. Passwords are made more secure in /etc/shadow. For Red Hat Linux groups, the analogous files are /etc/group and /etc/gshadow.

While creation of new account, the default parameters are configured in /etc/login.defs; configuration files are normally copied to the new user"s home directory from the /etc/skel directory.