PTS_DELETE(1)

📦
version 1.8.16.1 · 10 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💖 PTS_DELETE(1) — the AFS Command Reference, but make it cute 💖

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, and let me tell you about pts_delete ✨ (that's from the AFS Command Reference, iykyk)

🌸 NAME 🌸

pts_delete — deletes a Protection Database entry. that's it. that's the vibe. she's a deleter 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

pts delete -nameorid <user or group name or id>+
    [-cell <cell name>] [-noauth] [-localauth]
    [-force] [-help] [-auth] [-encrypt]
    [-config <config directory>]

pts d -na <user or group name or id>+
    [-c <cell name>] [-no] [-l] [-f] [-h]
    [-a] [-e] [-co <config directory>]

like yes she has two whole forms, and yes the short one is giving speedrun energy 🏃♀️💨

🫶 DESCRIPTION 🫶

so pts delete takes every single entry you name with the -nameorid argument and removes it from the Protection Database. gone. deleted. no take-backs 🌈

but bestie, deleting entries ripples through the rest of the system in so many ways, and we're gonna talk about all of them:

  • Deleted users and groups still show up on access control lists (ACLs), except now they're listed by AFS UID or GID instead of by name — because there's literally no name left to translate the ID into 😭. wanna scrub those obsolete entries off your ACLs? that's fs cleanacl's job, not hers.
  • Deleting a user or machine's entry also yanks it out of the membership list of every group it belonged to. she's thorough like that 💅
  • Deleting a group entry removes it from the membership list of any user or machine entry that belonged to that group, and it bumps the group-creation quota of the group's creator up by one — even if the creator doesn't own the group anymore. iconic behavior honestly 👑
quick heads up: if you just wanna remove a user or machine from a group without actually deleting the entry, go use pts removeuser instead. don't do a big dramatic delete when a small one will do 💖

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • -nameorid <user or group name or ID>+ — tells her exactly what to delete: the name or AFS UID of each user, the name or AFS GID of each group, or the IP address (complete or wildcard-style) or AFS UID of each machine entry. you can absolutely mix users, machines, and groups on the same command line, and you can mix names (IP addresses for machines) with IDs too. one rule tho: for each group, put a hyphen before its GID to show that it's negative, okay? 🎀
  • -auth — uses the calling user's tokens to talk to the Protection Server. want the full lore? see pts(1) ✨
  • -cell <cell name> — names the cell where the command runs. more details? pts(1), always pts(1) 💜
  • -config <config directory> — use an alternate config directory. and yes, pts(1) has the deets 🦋
  • -encrypt — encrypts any communication with the Protection Server. pts(1) explains more, bestie 🔐
  • -force — lets the command keep going as far as it possibly can when errors or other problems pop up, instead of slamming the brakes at the very first error. she's resilient 💪
  • -help — prints the online help for this command. and listen: all other valid options are ignored when you use it. she said help means help 🙈
  • -localauth — constructs a server ticket using a key from the local /etc/openafs/server/KeyFile file. ⚠️ do not combine this flag with the -cell or -noauth options, seriously. more info in pts(1) 🧚
  • -noauth — assigns the unprivileged identity anonymous to the issuer. details, as ever, in pts(1) 🌸

⭐ EXAMPLES ⭐

this one deletes the user entries "pat" and "terry":

% pts delete pat terry

and this one deletes the Protection Database entry of the group with AFS GID -215:

% pts delete -215

see how the negative GID just needs that little hyphen? she understood the assignment 🍓

👑 PRIVILEGE REQUIRED 👑

to delete user and machine entries, the issuer must belong to the system:administrators group. no shortcuts, no cap 🚫

to delete group entries, the issuer must either own the group or belong to system:administrators. pick your lane, both are valid 💖

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

fs_cleanacl(1), pts(1), pts_removeuser(1)

IBM Corporation 2000. <http://www.ibm.com/> All Rights Reserved.

This documentation is covered by the IBM Public License Version 1.0. It was converted from HTML to POD by software written by Chas Williams and Russ Allbery, based on work by Alf Wachsmann and Elizabeth Cassell.

okay that's the whole page, and also this gorgeousness came to you courtesy of OpenAFS, dated 2026-07-27 — mwah, stan forever, bye bestie 💖✨🦋

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