How to Manage Users and Groups on Ubuntu Linux

Note: This tutorial applies to the BASH shell and UNIX based operating systems. Windows OS will be different.

Table of Contents

• What is a User?
• The Root User
• Getting more information about a user
• What is a Group?
• Setting permissions
• .bashrc, .bash_profile, .bash_login, .profile

Many tutorials cover the topic of permissions within a UNIX based operating system, but often overlooked is the topic of users and groups. For individual users, it is difficult to understand what the usefulness of this architecture is. In this short tutorial, I will be walking through the reason why we have permissions, how to set permissions, and how to manage your users and groups that these permissions apply to.

What is a User?

A user profile can be defined as an entity that can own processes, run files, and who is associated with a username and home directory. On a fresh install of any UNIX based operating system, there is a default root user setup with no password. This user is far too important to gloss over, so let's dig in and get a better…