How to create or delete user in Linux

There are 2 commands in a modern Ubuntu to create new users: adduser and useradd. Unless you know what you are doing, do not use useradd.

adduser (USE THIS)

• To create a new user named joe:

$ sudo adduser joe

This creates a normal user, creates their home directory, copies over the dot files from /etc/skel, requests you to set the password for this user and generally sets up everything for the user to login and use the shell.

In addition, if you also want the user directories like Desktop, Downloads and such to be created:

<login as joe>

$ xdg-user-dirs-update

useradd (NOT RECOMMENDED)

• To create a new user named joe:

$ sudo useradd joe

This command does not even create a home directory for the new user.

• To create a new user named joe and create a home directory for him:

$ sudo useradd -m joe

• To delete a user named joe:

$ sudo userdel joe

The above command does not remove the files owned by the user.

• To delete a user named joe and remove all the files owned by him:

$ sudo userdel --remove-all-files joe

References:

• https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/XDG_user_directories

Tried with: Ubuntu 22.04