Re: change home directory name

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Author: Michael Havens
Date:  
To: michael, Main PLUG discussion list
Subject: Re: change home directory name
lovely..... because it ran out of space my old user can't log in to the
gui. I try logging in to a terminal as <new user> and it says:

root@Michaels-PC:~# su bmike2
To run a command as administrator (user "root"), use "sudo <command>".
See "man sudo_root" for details.
bash: bmike2/.bashrc: Permission denied
bmike2@Michaels-PC:/root$

I just looked at /home and it seems that what happened is it changed the
user name and barfed when it was coopying the files and so it left me with
the new user name and the old directory. So please..... how do I associate
the new user name with the old directory? Would I still use usermod
..... Well, I figured I didn't have anything to lose by trying it and I
found out that didn't work. Because the user was changed while the previous
command was in process user bmike1 doesn't exist.... I bet I know what's
going on!everything is owned by user bmike1 (who doesn't exist anymore) so
when bmike2 tried to access .bashrc it said 'nope'. So I think I figured
out the problem! (this is exciting)(I'll be a regular computer wizard
soon!) If what I think is the problem is is correct the solution would be
'find -r /home/bmike1 * | chown bmike2'. Would this work? Are there
programs not owned by the user in it's directory? What about them (if there
are)?

On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 2:34 PM, Michael Havens <> wrote:

> Well, I guess I don't really need to change the directory's name. So I
> suppose just
>
> 'usermod -l <newuser> <old user>'
>
>
> On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 2:23 PM, Michael Butash <> wrote:
>
>> Add some? :)
>>
>> Actually it sounds like it's "copying, then deleting" (safe) vs.
>> "moving", so if you're short diskspace, you'll need to just move it, change
>> your /etc/passwd and group file for the user/uid, and chown -r the
>> directory to the new username/uid.
>>
>> Matrix's method presumes you have temp disk space, but looks like you're
>> doing it the hard way manipulating ownerships and such from root user.
>>
>> -mb
>>
>>
>>
>> On 04/02/2012 02:09 PM, Michael Havens wrote:
>>
>>> hmmmmm. It just ran out of disk space. Any suggestions on what I can do
>>> about that?
>>>
>>> On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 1:58 PM, Michael Havens <
>>> <mailto:bmike1@gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>>    thanks for explainig the rationale of putting the old user name last.

>>>
>>>
>>>    On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 1:33 PM, Matrix Mole <
>>>    <mailto:matrixm@gmail.com>> wrote:

>>>
>>>        If the account you are trying to change is your current account,
>>>        it may be easier to login as root to make the changes (just to
>>>        prevent any existing programs in memory trying to use the old
>>>        username/directory). I'd also use the command as follows:

>>>
>>>        usermod -l <newuser> -md <newuser> <olduser>

>>>
>>>        since an existing username needs to be at the end (so the
>>>        command knows what user account to modify).

>>>
>>>
>>>        On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 1:26 PM, Michael Havens <
>>>        <mailto:bmike1@gmail.com>> wrote:

>>>
>>>            I'll use usermod then. Thanks for letting me know about it.
>>>            so I think this is the proper syntax. Will this work?

>>>
>>>               sudo usermod -l <olduser> <newuser> -dm <newuser>

>>>
>>>
>>>            On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 1:13 PM, Matrix Mole
>>>            < <mailto:matrixm@gmail.com>> wrote:

>>>
>>>                If you are changing your username, there is flags to the
>>>                usermod command that can help change the home directory.
>>>                The -d flag to usermod will update /etc/passwd with the
>>>                users home directory, and the -m flag will move the old
>>>                directory to the new name. I'm pretty sure that usermod
>>>                will also take care of the ownership issues as well.
>>>                Check 'man usermod' for more details on this. If you
>>>                don't use the usermod command, then there is also the
>>>                ownership issue to consider with changing home
>>>                directory. The chown command can help make sure the
>>>                directory is owned by the correct user with 'chown -R
>>>                {username} [homedir]' command.

>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>                On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 1:00 PM, Michael Havens
>>>                < <mailto:bmike1@gmail.com>> wrote:

>>>
>>>                    Thanks. Is that the only thing I have to worry about?

>>>
>>>
>>>                    On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 12:57 PM, Patricia Wilson
>>>                    <
>>>                    <mailto:wilson.pr.gm@gmail.com**>> wrote:

>>>
>>>                        Note that your home directory name appears in
>>>                        the /etc/passwd file so the system knows where
>>>                        you "live" when you login. If you change the
>>>                        name of that directory you need to change your
>>>                        entry in the passwd file to match.

>>>
>>>                        On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 12:17 PM, Michael Havens
>>>                        < <mailto:bmike1@gmail.com>>
>>> wrote:

>>>
>>>                            How would I accomplish this? Is it as easy
>>>                            as just moving the old name to the new name;
>>>                            or should I do a 'find -r / <old
>>>                            directory>|mv - <newdirectory'?

>>>
>>>                            --
>>>                            :-)~MIKE~(-:

>>>
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>>>
>>>                        --
>>>                        Sent from my super hot-shot dual core 64 bit
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>
>
> --
> :-)~MIKE~(-:
>



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