User Accounts

Every serverlet can have up to 100 user accounts. For security reasons, root privileges aren’t available. The main user is applet, which is created as soon as the serverlet is set up. This user owns the /srv directory, and all applications managed by runit run under this user.

First login

Before logging in for the first time, you need to set a password for the applet user. The password can be set in Administration under the serverlet’s Users tab.

Managing users

User accounts can be managed in Administration under the Users tab, where you’ll find a list of existing users. You can also create, edit, and delete users there. Managing users from the serverlet’s command line isn’t possible.

Adding a user

To add a user, you need to choose a username, a directory, and a password. The directory will serve as the user’s home directory — if it doesn’t exist, it will be created automatically.

User permissions

As soon as a user is created, they’re granted all necessary permissions to their home directory and all of its subdirectories. They won’t have write access to other directories (except those with 777 permissions), though read and execute access will be available. If you want to prevent a user from reading certain directories, set their permissions to 700. See the chmod and chown commands.

Deleting a user

Users can be deleted in Administration. Deleting a user does not delete their home directory. Once a user is deleted, you can’t add a new user with the same UID and GID — however, the username and directory can be reused.

Chrooting a user

Chrooting a user (confining them to their home directory) and restricting them to SFTP only isn’t currently possible.