Linux · User & Group Administration

Besides files, sss, and dns, /etc/nsswitch.conf accepts several other access methods. What do compat, db, and systemd resolve, and what happens if a method's backing library isn't installed?

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More in User & Group Administration

Ubuntu tells you never to log in as root and instead run admin tasks through your own account with sudo. What is the actual state of the root account on such a system, and why does that make it a non-issue to leave root passwordless?

During a standard Debian install you can just press Next past the root password screen, leaving it blank. What does Debian silently do to the first user account as a result?

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Debian gives you both adduser and useradd, and so does Fedora — but a script that works on Debian's adduser can misbehave on Fedora. Why?

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