deluser.conf5

Overview

The file /etc/deluser.conf contains defaults for the programs deluser(8) and delgroup(8). Each line holds a single value pair in the form option = value. Double or single quotes are allowed around the value, as is whitespace around the equals sign. Comment lines must have a hash sign (#) in the first column.

deluser(8) and delgroup(8) also read /etc/adduser.conf, see adduser.conf(5); settings in deluser.conf may overwrite settings made in adduser.conf.

The valid configuration options are:

BACKUP

If REMOVE_HOME or REMOVE_ALL_FILES is activated, all files are backed up before they are removed. The backup file that is created defaults to username.tar(.gz|.bz2) in the directory specified by the BACKUP_TO option. The compression method is chosen to the best that is available. Values may be 0 or 1. Defaults to 0.

BACKUP_SUFFIX

Select compression algorithm for a home directory backup. Can be set to any suffix recognized by tar --auto-compress. Defaults to .gz.

BACKUP_TO

If BACKUP is activated, BACKUP_TO specifies the directory the backup is written to. Defaults to the current directory.

EXCLUDE_FSTYPES

A regular expression which describes all filesystem types which should be excluded when looking for files of a user to be deleted. Defaults to "(proc|sysfs|usbfs|devtmpfs|devpts|afs)".

NO_DEL_PATHS

A list of regular expressions, space separated. All files to be deleted in course of deleting the home directory or user-owned files elsewhere are checked against each of these regular expressions. If a match is detected, the file is not deleted. Defaults to a list of system directories, leaving only /home. Therefore only files below /home belonging to that specific user are going to be deleted.

ONLY_IF_EMPTY

Only delete a group if there are no users belonging to this group. Defaults to 0.

REMOVE_ALL_FILES

Removes all files on the system owned by the user to be removed. If this option is activated REMOVE_HOME has no effect. Values may be 0 or 1. Defaults to 0.

REMOVE_HOME

Removes the home directory and mail spool of the user to be removed. Value may be 0 (don't delete) or 1 (do delete). Defaults to 0.

Files

/etc/deluser.conf