Adding Users

User accounts can be added or modified via the users element that supports a list of multiple user child elements:

<image schemaversion="8.0" name="{exc_image_base_name}">
    <users>
        <user
            password="this_is_soo_insecure"
            home="/home/me" name="me"
            groups="users" pwdformat="plain"
        />
        <user
            password="$1$wYJUgpM5$RXMMeASDc035eX.NbYWFl0"
            home="/root" name="root" groups="root"
        />
    </users>
</image>

Each user element represents a specific added or modified user. The following attributes are mandatory:

  • name: the UNIX username

  • password: The password for the user account. It can be provided either in clear-text form (pwdformat="plain") or in encrypted form (pwdformat="encrypted"). Using lain passwords is not advisable, as anyone with access to the image description can see the password. It is recommended to generate a hash of your password using openssl as follows:

    $ openssl passwd -1 -salt 'xyz' YOUR_PASSWORD

Additionally, the following optional attributes can be specified:

  • home: the path to the user’s home directory

  • groups: A comma-separated list of UNIX groups. The first element of the list is used as the user’s primary group. The remaining elements are appended to the user’s supplementary groups. When no groups are assigned, the system’s default primary group is be used.

  • id: The numeric user ID of the account.

  • pwdformat: The format in which password is provided, either plain or encrypted (the latter is the default).