So this would be my guess:
The first time you invoked userdel, it removed the user from the system
(/etc/passwd, /etc/group, and /etc/shadow) but didnt delete the home folder
because according to lastlog the user was still logged in. When you invoked
it a second time, it failed because the user no longer exists after all,
it deleted the entries from the various system files. Which left you with
all the files in the home folder
Either way, this sounds like a problem with userdel which, if you can
recreate it, needs to be reported as a bug.
From: users-bounces(a)lists.fedoraproject.org
[mailto:users-bounces@lists.fedoraproject.org] On Behalf Of sawrub
Sent: Sunday, May 30, 2010 10:12 PM
To: Community support for Fedora users
Subject: [Fedora] 'userdel' irony -- what do you say ?
Hi List,
I created a user by the name test, and after doing with my testing was going
to delete the user using the following command, userdel and also added '-f'
for cleaning out the home without leaving any traces of 'test'. But the
command says :
[root@xbox ~]# userdel -f test
userdel: user test is currently logged in
Then i noticed that a tab in terminal was open with the user logged in.
Closed the TAB and again tried to remove the user. And to irony the user was
already gone as now the command said :.
[root@xbox ~]# userdel -f test
userdel: user 'test' does not exist
Tried listing the files and all were there intact.
[root@xbox ~]# ll /home/test/
.bash_history .bash_profile .dbus/
firefox-3.6.4.tar.bz2 .gconfd/ .gnome2_private/
.pulse-cookie
.bash_logout .bashrc firefox/ .gconf/
.gnome2/ .mozilla/
[root@xbox ~]#
I'm totally lost that how is parameter working fully against what man says
about it, pert manual
-f, --force
This option forces the removal of the user account, even if the
user is still logged in. It also forces userdel to remove the user´s home
directory and mail spool, even if another user uses the same home directory
or if the mail spool is not owned by the specified user. If USERGROUPS_ENAB
is defined to yes in /etc/login.defs and if a group exists with the same
name as the deleted user, then this group will be removed, even if it is
still the primary group of another user.
Seems that there is some issue with the command parameter, what do you say ?
is there some issue or Am i wrong somewhere.
--
Saurabh Sharma
Linux user number: 490644
http://sawrub-blog.blogspot.com/
Open your doors.......It's time to look beyond Windows