Creating and Managing User Accounts on Ubuntu 24.04

This post covers creating new user accounts, granting administrator privileges, and deleting accounts in an Ubuntu environment. Applicable to both Ubuntu Server and Desktop.

[01] Summary

Item	Content
User creation	Use the adduser or useradd command
Home directory	Auto-created as /home/username when using adduser
Admin privileges	Granted by adding to the sudo group
Privilege verification	Check with groups or sudo whoami

[02] Creating a User

Using adduser handles home directory creation, default shell setup, and password configuration in one step.

sudo adduser username

When executed, the following are handled automatically.

Item	Description
Home directory	/home/username is created automatically
Default shell	Set to /bin/bash
Group	A group with the same name as the user is auto-created
Password	A prompt is shown to set it

useradd does not automatically create a home directory, so adduser is recommended for ordinary user creation.

[03] Granting Admin Privileges

To grant sudo privileges to the user you created, add them to the sudo group.

sudo usermod -aG sudo username

Option	Description
-a	Append while keeping existing groups (append)
-G	Specify the group to add

[04] Verifying Privileges and Creation

4-1. Verify the Home Directory

ls -ld /home/username

4-2. Verify Groups

groups username

Example output:

username : username sudo

If sudo is included, admin privileges have been granted correctly.

4-3. Verify sudo Privileges

Switch to the user and verify.

su - username
sudo whoami

If root is printed, it’s working correctly.

[05] Deleting a User

# Delete only the user (keep the home directory)
sudo deluser username

# Delete including the home directory
sudo deluser --remove-home username

Command	Description
deluser username	Delete the account only; /home/username is preserved
deluser --remove-home username	Delete both the account and the home directory

Reference: https://cmaven.tistory.com/12