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user - Manage user accounts

Synopsis

  • Manage user accounts and user attributes.
  • For Windows targets, use the win_user module instead.

Options

parameter required default choices comments
append
 no no
  • yes
  • no
If yes, will only add groups, not set them to just the list in groups.
comment
 no
Optionally sets the description (aka GECOS) of user account.
createhome
 no yes
  • yes
  • no
Unless set to no, a home directory will be made for the user when the account is created or if the home directory does not exist.
expires
(added in 1.9)
 no None
An expiry time for the user in epoch, it will be ignored on platforms that do not support this. Currently supported on Linux and FreeBSD.
force
 no no
  • yes
  • no
When used with state=absent, behavior is as with userdel --force.
generate_ssh_key
 no no
  • yes
  • no
Whether to generate a SSH key for the user in question. This will not overwrite an existing SSH key.
group
 no
Optionally sets the user's primary group (takes a group name).
groups
 no
Puts the user in list of groups. When set to the empty string ('groups='), the user is removed from all groups except the primary group.
Before version 2.3, the only input format allowed was a 'comma separated string', now it should be able to accept YAML lists also.
home
 no
Optionally set the user's home directory.
local
(added in 2.4)
 no False
Forces the use of "local" command alternatives on platforms that implement it. This is useful in environments that use centralized authentification when you want to manipulate the local users. I.E. it uses `luseradd` instead of `useradd`.
This requires that these commands exist on the targeted host, otherwise it will be a fatal error.
login_class
 no
Optionally sets the user's login class for FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD systems.
move_home
 no no
  • yes
  • no
If set to yes when used with home=, attempt to move the user's home directory to the specified directory if it isn't there already.
name
 yes
Name of the user to create, remove or modify.
aliases: user
non_unique
 no no
  • yes
  • no
Optionally when used with the -u option, this option allows to change the user ID to a non-unique value.
password
 no
Optionally set the user's password to this crypted value. See the user example in the github examples directory for what this looks like in a playbook. See http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/faq.html#how-do-i-generate-crypted-passwords-for-the-user-module for details on various ways to generate these password values. Note on Darwin system, this value has to be cleartext. Beware of security issues.
remove
 no no
  • yes
  • no
When used with state=absent, behavior is as with userdel --remove.
seuser
(added in 2.1)
 no
Optionally sets the seuser type (user_u) on selinux enabled systems.
shell
 no
Optionally set the user's shell.
skeleton
(added in 2.0)
 no
Optionally set a home skeleton directory. Requires createhome option!
ssh_key_bits
 no default set by ssh-keygen
Optionally specify number of bits in SSH key to create.
ssh_key_comment
 no ansible-generated on $HOSTNAME
Optionally define the comment for the SSH key.
ssh_key_file
 no .ssh/id_rsa
Optionally specify the SSH key filename. If this is a relative filename then it will be relative to the user's home directory.
ssh_key_passphrase
 no
Set a passphrase for the SSH key. If no passphrase is provided, the SSH key will default to having no passphrase.
ssh_key_type
 no rsa
Optionally specify the type of SSH key to generate. Available SSH key types will depend on implementation present on target host.
state
 no present
  • present
  • absent
Whether the account should exist or not, taking action if the state is different from what is stated.
system
 no no
  • yes
  • no
When creating an account, setting this to yes makes the user a system account. This setting cannot be changed on existing users.
uid
 no
Optionally sets the UID of the user.
update_password
(added in 1.3)
 no always
  • always
  • on_create
always will update passwords if they differ. on_create will only set the password for newly created users.

Examples

# Add the user 'johnd' with a specific uid and a primary group of 'admin'
- user:
    name: johnd
    comment: "John Doe"
    uid: 1040
    group: admin

# Add the user 'james' with a bash shell, appending the group 'admins' and 'developers' to the user's groups
- user:
    name: james
    shell: /bin/bash
    groups: admins,developers
    append: yes

# Remove the user 'johnd'
- user:
    name: johnd
    state: absent
    remove: yes

# Create a 2048-bit SSH key for user jsmith in ~jsmith/.ssh/id_rsa
- user:
    name: jsmith
    generate_ssh_key: yes
    ssh_key_bits: 2048
    ssh_key_file: .ssh/id_rsa

# added a consultant whose account you want to expire
- user:
    name: james18
    shell: /bin/zsh
    groups: developers
    expires: 1422403387

Notes

Note

  • There are specific requirements per platform on user management utilities. However they generally come pre-installed with the system and Ansible will require they are present at runtime. If they are not, a descriptive error message will be shown.
  • For Windows targets, use the win_user module instead.

Status

This module is flagged as stableinterface which means that the maintainers for this module guarantee that no backward incompatible interface changes will be made.

Maintenance Info

For more information about Red Hat’s this support of this module, please refer to this knowledge base article<https://access.redhat.com/articles/rhel-top-support-policies>

For help in developing on modules, should you be so inclined, please read Community Information & Contributing, Testing Ansible and Developing Modules.

© 2012–2017 Michael DeHaan
© 2017 Red Hat, Inc.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_module.html