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Last active November 27, 2023 15:20
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Adds a daemon only user in OS X (taken from http://serverfault.com/a/532860/329010)
#!/bin/bash
if (( $(id -u) )) ; then
echo "This script needs to run as root"
exit 1
fi
if [[ -z "$1" ]] ; then
echo "Usage: $(basename $0) [username] [realname (optional)]"
exit 1
fi
username=$1
realname="${2:-$username}"
echo "Adding daemon user $username with real name \"$realname\""
for (( uid = 500;; --uid )) ; do
if ! id -u $uid &>/dev/null; then
if ! dscl /Local/Default -ls Groups gid | grep -q [^0-9]$uid\$ ; then
dscl /Local/Default -create Groups/_$username
dscl /Local/Default -create Groups/_$username Password \*
dscl /Local/Default -create Groups/_$username PrimaryGroupID $uid
dscl /Local/Default -create Groups/_$username RealName "$realname"
dscl /Local/Default -create Groups/_$username RecordName _$username $username
dscl /Local/Default -create Users/_$username
dscl /Local/Default -create Users/_$username NFSHomeDirectory /var/$username
dscl /Local/Default -create Users/_$username Password \*
dscl /Local/Default -create Users/_$username PrimaryGroupID $uid
dscl /Local/Default -create Users/_$username RealName "$realname"
dscl /Local/Default -create Users/_$username RecordName _$username $username
dscl /Local/Default -create Users/_$username UniqueID $uid
dscl /Local/Default -create Users/_$username UserShell /usr/bin/false
dscl /Local/Default -delete /Users/_$username AuthenticationAuthority
dscl /Local/Default -delete /Users/_$username PasswordPolicyOptions
mkdir /var/$username
chown _$username:_$username /var/$username
chmod 775 /var/$username
break
fi
fi
done
echo -e "Created system user $username (uid/gid $uid):\n"
dscl /Local/Default -read Users/_$username
echo -e "\nYou can undo the creation of this user by issuing the following commands:\n"
echo "sudo dscl /Local/Default -delete Users/_$username"
echo "sudo dscl /Local/Default -delete Groups/_$username"
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