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Colin Stodd
Colin Stodd
3,160 Points
Posted by Colin Stodd
Colin Stodd
3,160 Points

Cannot Delete User Account

I'm doing the Console Foundations Drive, and we created a user account, however, I am unable to delete that account. I searched the web and found something that said to do: sudo userdel 'username' then delete the files by doing: sudo rm -r /home/username but Its not working. The username is still there and able to be logged into. Thanks in advance for your help.

2 Answers

James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points
James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points

Not sure exactly what your issue is, I just tried this in the Treehouse console.

sudo useradd test
sudo userdel test

As an aside you can check if the test account is on the system by using sudo grep test /etc/passwd.

Colin Stodd
Colin Stodd
3,160 Points
Colin Stodd
Colin Stodd
3,160 Points

Sorry to be getting back to you so late James (was out of town). But I wasn't using the "Treehouse Console" I was using the one in Ubuntu 13.10. I created a user account like they do in the Console Dive, but I am not able to delete the account that I created..

James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points
James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points

Well those commands should certainly work on ubuntu.

James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points
James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points

If the user is currently logged in then you can force the deletion using the -f switch.

sudo userdel -f test

That should work

Steven Rodriguez
Steven Rodriguez
5,643 Points

Idk about Colin, but when I run userdel it says "user Mike the Frog does not exist". Then I take a peek at the login to Linux screen and Mike the Frog is sitting right there. Userdel doesn't seem to be working for me either and I"m not sure how to delete him.