1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
2 <!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
3 "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
4 <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../general.ent">
8 <sect1 id="ch-preps-addinguser">
9 <?dbhtml filename="addinguser.html"?>
11 <title>Adding the LFS User</title>
13 <para>When logged in as user <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem>,
14 making a single mistake can damage or destroy a system. Therefore,
15 the packages in the next two chapters are built as an unprivileged user.
16 You could use your own user name, but to make it easier to set up a clean
17 working environment, we will create a new user called <systemitem
18 class="username">lfs</systemitem> as a member of a new group (also named
19 <systemitem class="groupname">lfs</systemitem>) and run commands as &lfs-user; during
20 the installation process. As <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem>,
21 issue the following commands to add the new user:</para>
23 <screen><userinput>groupadd &lfs-groupname;
24 useradd -s /bin/bash -g &lfs-groupname; -m -k /dev/null &lfs-username;</userinput></screen>
27 <title>This is what the command line options mean:</title>
30 <term><parameter>-s /bin/bash</parameter></term>
32 <para>This makes <command>bash</command> the default shell for user
33 <systemitem class="username">lfs</systemitem>.</para>
38 <term><parameter>-g lfs</parameter></term>
40 <para>This option adds user <systemitem class="username">lfs</systemitem>
41 to group <systemitem class="groupname">lfs</systemitem>.</para>
46 <term><parameter>-m</parameter></term>
48 <para>This creates a home directory for <systemitem
49 class="username">lfs</systemitem>.</para>
54 <term><parameter>-k /dev/null</parameter></term>
56 <para>This parameter prevents possible copying of files from a skeleton
57 directory (the default is <filename class="directory">/etc/skel</filename>)
58 by changing the input location to the special null device.</para>
63 <term><parameter>lfs</parameter></term>
65 <para>This is the name of the new user.</para>
71 <para>If you want to log in as &lfs-user; or switch to &lfs-user; from a
72 non-&root; user (as opposed to switching to user &lfs-user;
73 when logged in as &root;, which does not require the &lfs-user; user to
74 have a password), you need to set a password for &lfs-user;. Issue the
75 following command as the &root; user to set the password:</para>
77 <screen role="nodump"><userinput>passwd &lfs-username;</userinput></screen>
79 <para>Grant <systemitem class="username">lfs</systemitem> full access to
80 all the directories under <filename class="directory">$LFS</filename> by making
81 <systemitem class="username">lfs</systemitem> the owner:</para>
83 <screen><userinput>chown -v &lfs-username; $LFS/{usr{,/*},lib,var,etc,bin,sbin,tools}
85 x86_64) chown -v &lfs-username; $LFS/lib64 ;;
86 esac</userinput></screen>
88 <note><para>In some host systems, the following <command>su</command> command does not complete
89 properly and suspends the login for the &lfs-user; user to the background.
90 If the prompt "lfs:~$" does not appear immediately, entering the
91 <command>fg</command> command will fix the issue.</para></note>
93 <para>Next, start a shell running as user &lfs-user;. This can be done by
94 logging in as &lfs-user; on a virtual console, or with the following
95 substitute/switch user command:</para>
97 <screen role="nodump"><userinput>su - &lfs-username;</userinput></screen>
99 <para>The <quote><parameter>-</parameter></quote> instructs
100 <command>su</command> to start a login shell as opposed to a non-login shell.
101 The difference between these two types of shells is described in detail in
102 <ulink role='man' url='&man;bash.1'>bash(1)</ulink> and <command>info
103 bash</command>.</para>