I'm looking at creating my own RBAC script to initiate users, groups and apply acls at boot time on each startup.

The issue is that I can't find a way to add users via command line that has them show up in the webGUI

adding a user via useradd results in them showing in /etc/passwd but not in the webgui and not in /boot/passwd

e.g.

useradd -m -g users -G downloads,software testuser2

Does anyone know of a way to programatically add a user with a specified UID, GID and also have it show up in the webGUI too?

Then it would be easier/closer to having a script that would be a rudimentary RBAC that could initialise and run on each startup without user intervention.

I've gotten most of it working but I'm just missing the automation of user creation.
Any insight, would be appreciated :)

you need to install the ssh config plugin then run these comands otherwise the user home adn accounts won't sruive a reboot..
uses should aslo be made inteh user tab of the unraid web ui terminal to assinge permission...

otheriwse a user script at first array start...

Attempting to Create Unraid Users Programmatically (CLI)

I'm trying to automate user creation on Unraid without using the web GUI. Here's what I've tested and observed so far.

Environment

- Unraid 7.2.2, Slackware 15.0+, x86_64

What Works: System-Level User Creation

Standard Linux commands create a user that works for system access and SMB:

# Create system user

useradd -u 1050 -g 100 -d / -s /bin/false newuser

# Persist to boot config (survives reboot)

grep "^newuser:" /etc/passwd >> /boot/config/passwd

# Add shadow entry

echo "newuser:x:$(( $(date +%s) / 86400 ))::::::" >> /boot/config/shadow

# (Optional) Set SMB password

echo -e "password\npassword" | smbpasswd -a newuser

After running this, id newuser works, usermod -aG works, SMB authentication works. The user is fully functional at the system level.

However, the user does not appear in the Unraid web GUI until the next reboot.

After a reboot, the user does appear in the GUI. So whatever populates the GUI user list reads /boot/config/passwd at boot time.

What the GUI Does When Creating a User (Observed via syslog)

I monitored /var/log/syslog while creating a user called testgui through the web GUI. These entries appeared:

emhttpd: shcmd (137): useradd -g users -d / -s /bin/false -c '' 'testgui'

useradd: new user: name=testgui, UID=2003, GID=100, home=/, shell=/bin/false

chpasswd: password changed for testgui

emhttpd: Restarting services...

emhttpd: shcmd (145): /etc/rc.d/rc.samba reload

emhttpd: shcmd (148): exportfs -ra

emhttpd: shcmd (150): /etc/rc.d/rc.avahidaemon reload

emhttpd: shcmd (155): cp /etc/passwd /etc/shadow /var/lib/samba/private/smbpasswd /boot/config

Observations:

- emhttpd calls useradd without specifying a UID (auto-assigned)

- It uses chpasswd to set the password

- It reloads samba, NFS exports, and avahi

- It copies /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, and smbpasswd FROM /etc/ TO /boot/config/

File Monitoring (inotifywait)

I ran inotifywait on /boot/config/passwd, /boot/config/shadow, /boot/config/smbpasswd, and /var/local/emhttp/users.ini while creating a user

through the GUI.

The write events observed were:

/boot/config/passwd MODIFY

/boot/config/shadow MODIFY

/boot/config/smbpasswd MODIFY

/var/local/emhttp/users.ini DELETE_SELF

The users.ini file received a DELETE_SELF event — it appears to be deleted and recreated rather than appended to.

What I Tried That Doesn't Work

1. emcmd (Unraid's CLI tool)

/usr/local/sbin/emcmd "cmdUserEdit=Add&userName=newuser&userPassword=$(echo -n 'pass' | base64)&userPasswordConf=$(echo -n 'pass' | base64)"

emcmd is a PHP script at /usr/local/emhttp/plugins/dynamix/scripts/emcmd that uses curl_socket to post to /var/run/emhttpd.socket at the path

http://localhost/update.

The call blocks indefinitely. No useradd entry appears in syslog even after waiting 30+ seconds. I tried:

- Backgrounding with nohup and &

- Running via at job scheduler (fully detached)

- Killing the process after various timeouts (5s, 10s, 15s, 30s)

- Using /update.htm as the path instead of /update

- Writing a custom PHP script using curl_socket directly

None of these produced a user. No emhttpd: shcmd: useradd entry ever appeared in syslog from any CLI-initiated attempt.

Interestingly, emcmd DOES work for deleting users that were created through the GUI:

/usr/local/sbin/emcmd "cmdUserEdit=Delete&userName=testgui"

This also blocks, but the user IS deleted (confirmed via id and syslog showing userdel).

2. Direct socket writes

Tried posting directly to the emhttpd socket using PHP stream_socket_client, curl with CURLOPT_UNIX_SOCKET_PATH, and bash. Responses were either

HTTP 500, 0 bytes received (timeout), or the connection hung.

3. curl via nginx with session cookie

curl -sk -c cookies.txt -X POST https://nas.local/login -d 'username=root&password=xxx' -L

curl -sk -b cookies.txt -X POST https://nas.local/update.htm -d 'cmdUserEdit=Add&...'

Returns 502 Bad Gateway — nginx times out waiting for a response.

4. Appending to users.ini

I appended a properly formatted entry to /var/local/emhttp/users.ini. The entry was present in the file (confirmed with grep), but the user did

not appear in the GUI. Refreshing the page, clearing cache, etc. had no effect. The user only appeared after a reboot.

5. GraphQL API

The GraphQL endpoint at /graphql is active on Unraid 7.2.2, but user management mutations don't exist. Tested addUser, createUser, setUser,

updateUser — all return "Cannot query field on type Mutation."

Questions

1. Is there a supported way to create users from the command line that the GUI will recognize without a reboot?

2. Is there a command or signal to refresh the GUI's user list from /boot/config/passwd?

3. Why does emcmd cmdUserEdit=Delete work but cmdUserEdit=Add appears not to?

4. Are there plans to add user management to the GraphQL API?

Current Workaround

Using useradd + config file writes. The user is fully functional for system and SMB access immediately. GUI visibility requires a reboot.

Functional but not ideal for automation.

Summary

Method	User Created?	In GUI?	Deletable from GUI?
GUI (Add User)	Yes	Yes	Yes
useradd + config files	Yes	After reboot only	Not tested
emcmd cmdUserEdit=Add	No (hangs)	N/A	N/A
Direct socket write	No	N/A	N/A
curl via nginx	No (502)	N/A	N/A
Append to users.ini	N/A	No	N/A
GraphQL API	No (no mutation)	N/A	N/A

Edited March 22Mar 22 by longy

but write data to ram os sytem doen't surive a reboot.

again the ssh plugin and web ui... as this makes and writes the created users to survive a reboot.

https://github.com/docgyver/unraid-v6-plugins/blob/master/ssh.plg

learn from it if you want cli and how unraid needs to handle the shadows and tdb user database...

These were working features in the SSH config tool back in unraid v6