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Change Home Directory in Linux

January 30, 2011 Linux No Comments

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directory of a
Linux user with a
simple usermod
command. While
creating a user if
you didnt specify
any home
parameter Linux
assumes the
home directory of

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the user to be
/home/username
even if you did specify you can later change it to
something else according to your needs. Apart from
changing the home directory using the usermod
command youll have to assign proper ownership and
permissions to the new folder. You can also change
the home directory by editing the /etc/passwd file. Ill
outline both the steps here.

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Change the home directory using usermod

This method is for command line warriors. Before you
use the usermod command the new home directory
should be created, ownership should be assigned to
the new user and the folder should be chmoded
correctly so that no one else can access it. Run the
following commands to do it.
mkdir /home/new_home_directory
chown username:username /home/new_home_directory
chmod 700 /home/new_home_directory
usermod --home /home/new_home_directory username

Change the home directory by editing /etc/passwd

Alternatively you can also edit the /etc/passwd to
change the home directory. But you should be careful

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not to edit anything else. Before editing this file it is

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always better to create the new home directory and

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assign proper permissions and ownership to it.

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Execute the following commands.

mkdir /home/new_home_directory
chown username:username /home/new_home_directory
chmod 700 /home/new_home_directory

Open the /etc/passwd file using a text editor and

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locate the line containing the required username it

should look something like this

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username:x:500:500::/home/username:/bin/bash

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username:x:500:500::/home/new_home_directory:/bin/bash
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Save the file.
Finally copy all the old content to the new home

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directory
cp -f /home/username/* /home/new_home_dir/

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Based on a work at jesin.tk.

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