So this would be my guess:
The first time you invoked userdel, it removed the user from the
system (/etc/passwd, /etc/group, and /etc/shadow) but didn’t delete the
home folder because according to lastlog the user was still logged in. When
you invoked it a second time, it failed because the user no longer exists –
after all, it deleted the entries from the various system files. Which left
you with all the files in the home folder …
Either way, this sounds like a problem with userdel which, if
you can recreate it, needs to be reported as a bug.
From: users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of sawrub
Sent: Sunday, May 30, 2010 10:12 PM
To: Community support for Fedora users
Subject: [Fedora] 'userdel' irony -- what do you say ?
Hi List,
I created a user by the name test, and after doing with my testing was going to
delete the user using the following command, userdel and also added '-f' for
cleaning out the home without leaving any traces of 'test'. But the command
says :
[root@xbox ~]# userdel -f test
userdel: user test is currently logged in
Then i noticed that a tab in terminal was open with the user logged in. Closed
the TAB and again tried to remove the user. And to irony the user was already
gone as now the command said :.
[root@xbox ~]# userdel -f test
userdel: user 'test' does not exist
Tried listing the files and all were there intact.
[root@xbox ~]# ll /home/test/
.bash_history
.bash_profile
.dbus/
firefox-3.6.4.tar.bz2 .gconfd/
.gnome2_private/ .pulse-cookie
.bash_logout
.bashrc
firefox/
.gconf/
.gnome2/
.mozilla/
[root@xbox ~]#
I'm totally lost that how is parameter working fully against what man says
about it, pert manual
-f, --force
This option forces
the removal of the user account, even if the user is still logged in. It also
forces userdel to remove the user´s home directory and mail spool, even if
another user uses the same home directory or if the mail spool is not owned by
the specified user. If USERGROUPS_ENAB is defined to yes in /etc/login.defs and
if a group exists with the same name as the deleted user, then this group will
be removed, even if it is still the primary group of another user.
Seems that there is some issue with the command parameter, what do you say ? is
there some issue or Am i wrong somewhere.
--
Saurabh Sharma
Linux user number: 490644
http://sawrub-blog.blogspot.com/
Open your doors.......It's time to look beyond Windows
