How to Delete Users and Groups From Terminal on macOS

Max OS X Deleting Users & Groups by Command Line

Hi! The Mac Tutorial simply Show How to Remove/Delete Users and Groups from the macOS Shell Terminal Emulator.

This Process can be Useful in situations like the followings:

• After the Installation of some Software like MySQL you can have some
  problem with the Automatically Created user.
• If you try to add an User or Group from System>Preferences and you find it already exists but this doesn’t permit you to Login on a Terminal Session.

1. 1. Terminal QuickStart

   How to Quick-Start with Command Line on macOS:

   Bash Shell macOS QuickStart Guide

   Getting-Started with Terminal on macOS.

2. 2. Deleting Users & Groups

   So now the Commands to Delete Users and Groups

   • To Delete a User

     sudo dscl . -delete /Users/[yourUserName]

   • To Delete a Group

     sudo dscl . -delete /Groups/[yourGroupName]

3. 3. Re-Creating Users & Groups

   Then in case to Make Users and Groups
   To achieve it you can simply use the System Preferences Tool.
   And then Fix Ownerships on Directories and Files Owned by the Deleted Users/Groups.
   For example if you deleted and recreated “mysql” User and Group after you will need to Recursively Reset ownership by:

   sudo chown -R mysql:mysql /usr/local/mysql

Mac HOW-TO Make a Command Alias 4 Easy-Quick Execution:
How to make a Command Alias as Time-Saver.