user – Manage user accounts

From Get docs
Ansible/docs/2.8/modules/user module


user – Manage user accounts

Synopsis

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

Parameters

Parameter Choices/Defaults Comments

append

boolean

  • no

  • yes

If yes, add the user to the groups specified in groups.

If no, user will only be added to the groups specified in groups, removing them from all other groups.

Mutually exclusive with local

authorization

string

added in 2.8

Sets the authorization of the user.

Does nothing when used with other platforms.

Can set multiple authorizations using comma separation.

To delete all authorizations, use authorization=.

Currently supported on Illumos/Solaris.

comment

string

Optionally sets the description (aka GECOS) of user account.

create_home

boolean

  • no
  • yes

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.

Changed from createhome to create_home in Ansible 2.5.


aliases: createhome

expires

float

An expiry time for the user in epoch, it will be ignored on platforms that do not support this.

Currently supported on GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, and DragonFlyBSD.

Since Ansible 2.6 you can remove the expiry time specify a negative value. Currently supported on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD.

force

boolean

  • no

  • yes

This only affects state=absent, it forces removal of the user and associated directories on supported platforms.

The behavior is the same as userdel --force, check the man page for userdel on your system for details and support.

When used with generate_ssh_key=yes this forces an existing key to be overwritten.

generate_ssh_key

boolean

  • no

  • yes

Whether to generate a SSH key for the user in question.

This will not overwrite an existing SSH key unless used with force=yes.

group

string

Optionally sets the user's primary group (takes a group name).

groups

list

List of groups user will be added to. When set to an empty string , the user is removed from all groups except the primary group.

Before Ansible 2.3, the only input format allowed was a comma separated string.

Mutually exclusive with local

hidden

boolean

added in 2.6

  • no
  • yes

macOS only, optionally hide the user from the login window and system preferences.

The default will be yes if the system option is used.

home

path

Optionally set the user's home directory.

local

boolean

added in 2.4

  • no

  • yes

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 will check /etc/passwd for an existing account before invoking commands. If the local account database exists somewhere other than /etc/passwd, this setting will not work properly.

This requires that the above commands as well as /etc/passwd must exist on the target host, otherwise it will be a fatal error.

Mutually exclusive with groups and append

login_class

string

Optionally sets the user's login class, a feature of most BSD OSs.

move_home

boolean

  • no

  • yes

If set to yes when used with home: , attempt to move the user's old home directory to the specified directory if it isn't there already and the old home exists.

name

string / required

Name of the user to create, remove or modify.


aliases: user

non_unique

boolean

  • no

  • yes

Optionally when used with the -u option, this option allows to change the user ID to a non-unique value.

password

string

Optionally set the user's password to this crypted value.

On macOS systems, this value has to be cleartext. Beware of security issues.

To create a disabled account on Linux systems, set this to '!' or '*'.

To create a disabled account on OpenBSD, set this to '*************'.

See https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/faq.html#how-do-i-generate-encrypted-passwords-for-the-user-module for details on various ways to generate these password values.

password_lock

boolean

added in 2.6

  • no
  • yes

Lock the password (usermod -L, pw lock, usermod -C).

BUT implementation differs on different platforms, this option does not always mean the user cannot login via other methods.

This option does not disable the user, only lock the password. Do not change the password in the same task.

Currently supported on Linux, FreeBSD, DragonFlyBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD.

profile

string

added in 2.8

Sets the profile of the user.

Does nothing when used with other platforms.

Can set multiple profiles using comma separation.

To delete all the profiles, use profile=.

Currently supported on Illumos/Solaris.

remove

boolean

  • no

  • yes

This only affects state=absent, it attempts to remove directories associated with the user.

The behavior is the same as userdel --remove, check the man page for details and support.

role

string

added in 2.8

Sets the role of the user.

Does nothing when used with other platforms.

Can set multiple roles using comma separation.

To delete all roles, use role=.

Currently supported on Illumos/Solaris.

seuser

string

added in 2.1

Optionally sets the seuser type (user_u) on selinux enabled systems.

shell

string

Optionally set the user's shell.

On macOS, before Ansible 2.5, the default shell for non-system users was /usr/bin/false. Since Ansible 2.5, the default shell for non-system users on macOS is /bin/bash.

On other operating systems, the default shell is determined by the underlying tool being used. See Notes for details.

skeleton

string

added in 2.0

Optionally set a home skeleton directory.

Requires create_home option!

ssh_key_bits

integer

Default:

"default set by ssh-keygen"

Optionally specify number of bits in SSH key to create.

ssh_key_comment

string

Default:

"ansible-generated on $HOSTNAME"

Optionally define the comment for the SSH key.

ssh_key_file

path

Optionally specify the SSH key filename.

If this is a relative filename then it will be relative to the user's home directory.

This parameter defaults to .ssh/id_rsa.

ssh_key_passphrase

string

Set a passphrase for the SSH key.

If no passphrase is provided, the SSH key will default to having no passphrase.

ssh_key_type

string

Default:

"rsa"

Optionally specify the type of SSH key to generate.

Available SSH key types will depend on implementation present on target host.

state

string

  • absent
  • present

Whether the account should exist or not, taking action if the state is different from what is stated.

system

boolean

  • no

  • yes

When creating an account state=present, setting this to yes makes the user a system account.

This setting cannot be changed on existing users.

uid

integer

Optionally sets the UID of the user.

update_password

string

  • always

  • on_create

always will update passwords if they differ.

on_create will only set the password for newly created users.



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.
  • On SunOS platforms, the shadow file is backed up automatically since this module edits it directly. On other platforms, the shadow file is backed up by the underlying tools used by this module.
  • On macOS, this module uses dscl to create, modify, and delete accounts. dseditgroup is used to modify group membership. Accounts are hidden from the login window by modifying /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist.
  • On FreeBSD, this module uses pw useradd and chpass to create, pw usermod and chpass to modify, pw userdel remove, pw lock to lock, and pw unlock to unlock accounts.
  • On all other platforms, this module uses useradd to create, usermod to modify, and userdel to remove accounts.


See Also

See also

authorized_key – Adds or removes an SSH authorized key
The official documentation on the authorized_key module.
group – Add or remove groups
The official documentation on the group module.
win_user – Manages local Windows user accounts
The official documentation on the win_user module.


Examples

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

- name: 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

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

- name: 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

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

- name: Starting at Ansible 2.6, modify user, remove expiry time
  user:
    name: james18
    expires: -1

Return Values

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key Returned Description

append

boolean

When state is 'present' and the user exists

Whether or not to append the user to groups


Sample:

True

comment

string

When user exists

Comment section from passwd file, usually the user name


Sample:

Agent Smith

create_home

boolean

When user does not exist and not check mode

Whether or not to create the home directory


Sample:

True

force

boolean

When state is 'absent' and user exists

Whether or not a user account was forcibly deleted


group

integer

When user exists

Primary user group ID


Sample:

1001

groups

string

When groups is not empty and state is 'present'

List of groups of which the user is a member


Sample:

chrony,apache

home

string

When state is 'present'

Path to user's home directory


Sample:

/home/asmith

move_home

boolean

When state is 'present' and user exists

Whether or not to move an existing home directory


name

string

always

User account name


Sample:

asmith

password

string

When state is 'present' and password is not empty

Masked value of the password


Sample:

NOT_LOGGING_PASSWORD

remove

boolean

When state is 'absent' and user exists

Whether or not to remove the user account


Sample:

True

shell

string

When state is 'present'

User login shell


Sample:

/bin/bash

ssh_fingerprint

string

When generate_ssh_key is True

Fingerprint of generated SSH key


Sample:

2048 SHA256:aYNHYcyVm87Igh0IMEDMbvW0QDlRQfE0aJugp684ko8 ansible-generated on host (RSA)

ssh_key_file

string

When generate_ssh_key is True

Path to generated SSH public key file


Sample:

/home/asmith/.ssh/id_rsa

ssh_public_key

string

When generate_ssh_key is True

Generated SSH public key file


Sample:

'ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQC95opt4SPEC06tOYsJQJIuN23BbLMGmYo8ysVZQc4h2DZE9ugbjWWGS1/pweUGjVstgzMkBEeBCByaEf/RJKNecKRPeGd2Bw9DCj/bn5Z6rGfNENKBmo 618mUJBvdlEgea96QGjOwSB7/gmonduC7gsWDMNcOdSE3wJMTim4lddiBx4RgC9yXsJ6Tkz9BHD73MXPpT5ETnse+A3fw3IGVSjaueVnlUyUmOBf7fzmZbhlFVXf2Zi2rFTXqvbdGHKkzpw1U8eB8xFPP7y d5u1u0e6Acju/8aZ/l17IDFiLke5IzlqIMRTEbDwLNeO84YQKWTm9fODHzhYe0yvxqLiK07 ansible-generated on host'

stderr

string

When stderr is returned by a command that is run

Standard error from running commands


Sample:

Group wheels does not exist

stdout

string

When standard output is returned by the command that is run

Standard output from running commands


system

boolean

When system is passed to the module and the account does not exist

Whether or not the account is a system account


Sample:

True

uid

integer

When UID is passed to the module

User ID of the user account


Sample:

1044




Status

Red Hat Support

More information about Red Hat’s support of this module is available from this Red Hat Knowledge Base article.

Authors

  • Stephen Fromm (@sfromm)

Hint

If you notice any issues in this documentation you can edit this document to improve it.


© 2012–2018 Michael DeHaan
© 2018–2019 Red Hat, Inc.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/2.8/modules/user_module.html