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PAM_MKHOMEDIR

Section: Linux-PAM Manual (8)
Updated: 02/02/2026
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NAME

pam_mkhomedir - PAM module to create users home directory

SYNOPSIS

pam_mkhomedir.so [silent] [debug] [umask=mode] [skel=skeldir]

DESCRIPTION

The pam_mkhomedir PAM module will create a users home directory if it does not exist when the session begins. This allows users to be present in central database (such as NIS, kerberos or LDAP) without using a distributed file system or pre-creating a large number of directories. The skeleton directory (usually /etc/skel/) is used to copy default files and also sets a umask for the creation.

/usr/share/pam/skel will also be used unless skel option is specified.

The new users home directory will not be removed after logout of the user.

OPTIONS

silent

: Don't print informative messages.

debug

: Turns on debugging via syslog(3).

umask=mask

: The file mode creation mask is set to mask. The default value of mask is 0022. If this option is not specified, then the permissions of created user home directory is set to the value of HOME_MODE configuration item from /etc/login.defs. If there is no such configuration item then the value is computed from the value of UMASK in the same file. If there is no such configuration option either the default value of 0755 is used for the mode.

skel=/path/to/skel/directory

: Indicate an alternative skel directory to override the default /etc/skel.

MODULE TYPES PROVIDED

Only the session module type is provided.

RETURN VALUES

PAM_BUF_ERR

: Memory buffer error.

PAM_PERM_DENIED

: Not enough permissions to create the new directory or read the skel directory.

PAM_USER_UNKNOWN

: User not known to the underlying authentication module.

PAM_SUCCESS

: Environment variables were set.

FILES

/etc/skel

: Default skel directory

EXAMPLES

A sample /etc/pam.d/login file:

  auth       requisite   pam_securetty.so
  auth       sufficient  pam_ldap.so
  auth       required    pam_unix.so
  auth       required    pam_nologin.so
  account    sufficient  pam_ldap.so
  account    required    pam_unix.so
  password   required    pam_unix.so
  session    required    pam_mkhomedir.so skel=/etc/skel/ umask=0022
  session    required    pam_unix.so
  session    optional    pam_lastlog.so
  session    optional    pam_mail.so standard

AUTHOR

pam_mkhomedir was written by Jason Gunthorpe <jgg@debian.org>.