<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN" "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [ <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../general.ent"> %general-entities; ]> <sect1 id="ch-tools-addinguser"> <?dbhtml filename="addinguser.html"?> <title>Adding the LFS User</title> <para>When logged in as user <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem>, making a single mistake can damage or destroy a system. Therefore, we recommend building the packages in this chapter as an unprivileged user. You could use your own user name, but to make it easier to set up a clean working environment, create a new user called <systemitem class="username">lfs</systemitem> as a member of a new group (also named <systemitem class="groupname">lfs</systemitem>) and use this user during the installation process. As <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem>, issue the following commands to add the new user:</para> <screen><userinput>groupadd lfs useradd -s /bin/bash -g lfs -m -k /dev/null lfs</userinput></screen> <variablelist> <title>The meaning of the command line options:</title> <varlistentry> <term><parameter>-s /bin/bash</parameter></term> <listitem> <para>This makes <command>bash</command> the default shell for user <systemitem class="username">lfs</systemitem>.</para> </listitem> </varlistentry> <varlistentry> <term><parameter>-g lfs</parameter></term> <listitem> <para>This option adds user <systemitem class="username">lfs</systemitem> to group <systemitem class="groupname">lfs</systemitem>.</para> </listitem> </varlistentry> <varlistentry> <term><parameter>-m</parameter></term> <listitem> <para>This creates a home directory for <systemitem class="username">lfs</systemitem>.</para> </listitem> </varlistentry> <varlistentry> <term><parameter>-k /dev/null</parameter></term> <listitem> <para>This parameter prevents possible copying of files from a skeleton directory (default is <filename class="directory">/etc/skel</filename>) by changing the input location to the special null device.</para> </listitem> </varlistentry> <varlistentry> <term><parameter>lfs</parameter></term> <listitem> <para>This is the actual name for the created group and user.</para> </listitem> </varlistentry> </variablelist> <para>To log in as <systemitem class="username">lfs</systemitem> (as opposed to switching to user <systemitem class="username">lfs</systemitem> when logged in as <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem>, which does not require the <systemitem class="username">lfs</systemitem> user to have a password), give <systemitem class="username">lfs</systemitem> a password:</para> <screen role="nodump"><userinput>passwd lfs</userinput></screen> <para>Grant <systemitem class="username">lfs</systemitem> full access to <filename class="directory">$LFS/tools</filename> by making <systemitem class="username">lfs</systemitem> the directory owner:</para> <screen><userinput>chown -v lfs $LFS/tools</userinput></screen> <para>If a separate working directory was created as suggested, give user <systemitem class="username">lfs</systemitem> ownership of this directory:</para> <screen><userinput>chown -v lfs $LFS/sources</userinput></screen> <para>Next, login as user <systemitem class="username">lfs</systemitem>. This can be done via a virtual console, through a display manager, or with the following substitute user command:</para> <screen role="nodump"><userinput>su - lfs</userinput></screen> <para>The <quote><parameter>-</parameter></quote> instructs <command>su</command> to start a login shell as opposed to a non-login shell. The difference between these two types of shells can be found in detail in <filename>bash(1)</filename> and <command>info bash</command>.</para> </sect1>