How to Create and Delete Users on CentOS 7

1. Creating New User logged in as root account

Log in to your server as the root user, as the root user having the privileges to create a new user account.

adduser username

example: create username "yogi"
adduser yogi

Now update the new user's password with "passwd" command.

passwd username

example: update password of user account "yogi"
passwd yogi

2. Deleting User Account logged in as root account

To delete the user account without deleting any of their files, use the below command.

userdel username

example: delete user "yogi"
userdel yogi

To delete the user’s home directory along with the user account itself, use the below command.

userdel -r username

example: delete user account "yogi"
userdel -r yogi

I. Creating New User logged in non-root account having sudo privileges

For non-root user who is having sudo privileges, can use the below command for adding a new user account.

sudo adduser username

example: create username "yogi"
sudo adduser yogi

Now update the new user's password with "passwd" command.

sudo passwd username

example: update password of user account "yogi"
sudo passwd yogi

II. Deleting User Account logged in non-root account having sudo privileges

To delete the user account without deleting any of their files, use the below command.

sudo userdel username

example: delete user "yogi"
sudo userdel yogi

To delete the user’s home directory along with the user account itself, use the below command.

sudo userdel -r username

example: delete user account "yogi"
sudo userdel -r yogi