Linux System Administration

User Management

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This prevents the former employee from logging in or making use of configuration

files such as the .forward file discussed in the previous section. The contents remain

intact in case they’re needed later.

Graphical User Managers

As Linux’s market penetration began to increase earlier in the decade, companies

such as Sun Microsystems, Novell, Computer Associates, HP, and IBM started port-

ing their administrative toolkits to Red Hat, SUSE, and other Linux platforms. Addi-

tionally, the administrative tools bundled with Linux distributions began to mature,

with increases in both function and usability.

Since you now have some knowledge of the commands and processes required to

create and clean up a personal user account, you should find these utilities easy to

use. Generally, though, you will find them less flexible than using the command line.

Let’s take a look at an example of one such tool, originally built on a SUSE utility called

YaST2. Sun’s Java Desktop Configurator is pictured in Figure 8-14. Descriptions of the

functions you can perform with this tool are provided in the panel on the left.

Figure 8-14. Sun Microsystems’s JDS User Manager

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Chapter 8: Local Network Services

Notice that the dialog box at the top is asking whether you want to delete the direc-

tory /home/tadelste ...