Adding Users

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

<image schemaversion="7.4" 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 user that is added or modified. The following attributes are mandatory:

  • name: the UNIX username

  • password: The password for this user account. It can be provided either in cleartext form (pwdformat="plain") or in crypt’ed form (pwdformat="encrypted"). Plain passwords are discouraged, as everyone with access to the image description would know 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 then the system’s default primary group will be used.

  • id: The numeric user id of this account.

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