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
Well that didn't work.... Patricia mentioned something about the home
directory being in /etc/passwd and that if I change the name of the
directory I need to change it in /etc/passwd. Oh I didn't change the name.
Well.... I investigated the file anyways and see something odd about my
entry (bmike2:x:1000:1000:Michael Havens,,,:bmike2:/bin/bash), there is no
directory! So I put one in there (following the other enries as an example)
and it becomes, bmike2:x:1000:1000:Michael
Havens,,,:/home/bmike2:/bin/bash. But I do have a question, what are all of
the comas for after my name?


On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 12:37 AM, Michael Havens <> wrote:

> boy.... I nervously entered the command into the terminal and pressed
> enter expecting it to take at least a minute. Was I surprised when it
> completed in 3 seconds!
>
>
> yeah Michael.... this is making me very uncomfortable. I'll live with the
> new user name and the old directory name. You know, I don't know why it ran
> out of space! I have .33GB of free space after the copy. What is that?
> 330MB? It shouldn't of run out of room!
>
>
> On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 12:19 AM, Michael Havens <> wrote:
>
>> Ahhh shucks.... you guys already told me that was going to be a problem
>> and you gave me the solution I was asking for. Good thing I looked through
>> the posts again. Thanks..... it looks like I'm not as smart as I thought I
>> was. Me and my acursed memory!
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 11:57 PM, Michael Havens <> wrote:
>>
>>> 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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>>>>>>
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>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>                        --
>>>>>>                        Sent from my super hot-shot dual core 64 bit
>>>>>>                        Gateway running Ubuntu 11 from the
>>>>>>                        chrome/teakwood/glass desktop in my Luxo
>>>>>>                        Scottsdale condo.

>>>>>>
>>>>>>                        Patricia Wilson
>>>>>>                        Apache Junction, AZ
>>>>>>                        Member NRA, ARRL
>>>>>>                        WB8DXX

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

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

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

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



--
:-)~MIKE~(-:
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