Linux – What’s the difference between “adduser” and “useradd”

debianlinuxuser-management

I wonder: Why are there these two commands on Debian Linux, with very similar names and functionality? This has always been confusing for me.

Is any of them superior to another?
Why aren't they merged into one?
Is there any significant difference between them?
Which one should I use? Or does it depend on a use case?

Best Answer

useradd is native binary compiled with the system. But, adduser is a perl script which uses useradd binary in back-end.

adduser is more user friendly and interactive than its back-end useradd. There's no difference in features provided.

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