User administration script

GNU/Linux is a multiuser operating system allowing many users to log in and perform several activities at the same time. There are several administration tasks that are handled with user management, which include setting the default shell for the user, disabling a user account, disabling a shell account, adding new users, removing users, setting a password, setting an expiry date for a user account, and so on. This recipe aims at writing a user management tool that can handle all of these tasks.

How to do it…

Let's go through the user administration script:

#!/bin/bash
#Filename: user_adm.sh
#Description: A user administration tool

function usage()
{
  echo Usage:
  echo Add a new user
  echo $0 -adduser username password
  echo
  echo Remove an existing user
  echo $0 -deluser username
  echo
  echo Set the default shell for the user
  echo $0 -shell username SHELL_PATH
  echo
  echo Suspend a user account
  echo $0 -disable username
  echo
  echo Enable a suspended...