What's the Difference Between the -D and -M Options for Useradd?
When We Use Useradd, What Is the Difference Between -D and -M? Because the Definitions of Both Sound Similar, Which Is Responsible for Creating a Home...
When we use useradd, what is the difference between -d and -m? Because the definitions of both sound similar, which is responsible for creating a home directory.
1 Answer
The 2 options are not really similar, but they can work together. If you look at the manpage of useradd you'll find the following:
-d, --home-dir HOME_DIR
The new user will be created using HOME_DIR as the value for the user's login
directory. The default is to append the LOGIN name to BASE_DIR and use that as the
login directory name. The directory HOME_DIR does not have to exist but will not be
created if it is missing.
-m, --create-home
Create the user's home directory if it does not exist. The files and directories
contained in the skeleton directory (which can be defined with the -k option) will be
copied to the home directory.
By default, if this option is not specified and CREATE_HOME is not enabled, no home
directories are created.
The -d option is just to set where the home directory of the created user will be but it will not create it if it doesn't exist. While the -m option will create the home directory that is set by -d if it doesn't exist.
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