Setting up new users and handing out their details?

Posted by Anonymous on Fri 18 May 2007 at 09:24

I am the administrator of a small computer lab, and I would like to automate the creation and initial setup of new user accounts - such that each new user can be given a printout of useful information and their account details. Is there some packaged software to do this simple job?

The process would be:

Create a new user account.
Generate a random password for it, and remember it.
Print a handout with some general information on the lab and their new login details.

This should be quite straightforward to implement, e.g. with adduser, pwgen, and pdftk. Although it seems like a common task for system administrations I couldn't find any pre-existing solution.

What is your policy for creating new accounts? Do you do something like this? Finally is there any software packages for Debian which would perform these simple tasks?

(Maybe every administrator creates their own one from scratch?)

This article can be found online at the Debian Administration website at the following bookmarkable URL:

http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/525