Users and Groups

The useradd(8), userdel(8) and usermod(8) commands are used to add, delete and modify users respectively. The passwd(1) command is used to change passwords.

The groupadd(8), groupdel(8) and groupmod(8) commands are used to add, delete and modify groups respectively. The groups(1) command lists all groups a user belongs to.

Default shell

The default shell for a user can be changed with chsh(1):

$ chsh -s <shell> <user_name>

<shell> must be the path to the shell as specified by /etc/shells or the output of chsh -l, which provides a list of installed shells.

sudo

sudo(8) is installed by default, but might not be configured appropriately for your needs. It is only necessary to configure sudo if you wish to use it.

Use visudo(8) as root to edit the sudoers(5) file.

To create a superuser, uncomment the line

#%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

and add users to the wheel group.

Default Groups

Void Linux defines a number of groups by default.

Group	Description
`root`	Complete access to the system.
`bin`	Unused - present for historical reasons.
`sys`	Unused - present for historical reasons.
`kmem`	Ability to read from `/dev/mem` and `/dev/port`.
`wheel`	Elevated privileges for specific system administration tasks.
`tty`	Access to TTY-like devices: `/dev/tty`, `/dev/pts`, `/dev/vcs*`.
`tape`	Access to tape devices.
`daemon`	System daemons that need to write to files on disk.
`floppy`	Access to floppy drives.
`disk`	Raw access to `/dev/sd` and `/dev/loop`.
`lp`	Access to printers.
`dialout`	Access to serial ports.
`audio`	Access to audio devices.
`video`	Access to video devices.
`utmp`	Ability to write to `/var/run/utmp`, `/var/log/wtmp` and `/var/log/btmp`.
`adm`	Unused - present for historical reasons. This group was traditionally used for system monitoring, such as viewing files in `/var/log`.
`cdrom`	Access to CD devices.
`optical`	Access to DVD/CD-RW devices.
`mail`	Used by some mail packages, e.g. `dma`.
`storage`	Access to removable storage devices.
`scanner`	Ability to access scanners.
`network`	Used by some networking-related packages, e.g. `connman`, `NetworkManager`, `wicd`.
`kvm`	Ability to use KVM for virtual machines, e.g. via QEMU.
`input`	Access to input devices: `/dev/mouse`, `/dev/event`.
`plugdev`	Access to pluggable devices.
`nogroup`	System daemons that don't need to own any files.
`usbmon`	Access to `/dev/usbmon*`.
`users`	Ordinary users.
`xbuilder`	To use xbps-uchroot(1) with `xbps-src`.