Change user ID of user in Linux, but don't touch the files in the home directory

Asked Apr 14 '23 at 08:43

Active Apr 14 '23 at 08:43

Viewed 654 times

I want to change the user ID of www-data, but not touch the files in the home directory.

usermod man page:

   -u, --uid UID
       The new numerical value of the user's ID.
   This value must be unique, unless the -o option is used. The value must be non-negative.

   The user's mailbox, and any files which the user owns and which are located in the user's home directory will have the file
   user ID changed automatically.

   The ownership of files outside of the user's home directory must be fixed manually.

So is there a way to execute this without that side effect or do I have to edit /etc/passwd manually using sed or something like that?

asked Apr 14 '23 at 08:43

Alex

1

Maybe changing the user's home directory name temporarily ... – U880D Apr 14 '23 at 09:16
Okay, would work, wondering if there is a more elegant solution. – Alex Apr 14 '23 at 09:17
2

You mean you want to change the UID, but keep the files in the user's home owned by the old UID, so no longer actually owned by the www-data user? – terdon Apr 14 '23 at 11:27
Actually I am correcting the user ID, it's in a docker setup and the /var/www folder is mounted, so the files already should have the correct ID, but the user's ID is not the right one. – Alex Apr 14 '23 at 18:37

Change user ID of user in Linux, but don't touch the files in the home directory

0 Answers0