BOS_REMOVEUSER(8)

💖 BOS_REMOVEUSER 💖

okay bestie, so this one lives in the AFS Command Reference (section 8 of the manual, iykyk) and it's called bos_removeuser 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

bos_removeuser — removes a privileged user from the UserList file 💅

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

bos removeuser -server <machine name> -user <user names>+
    [-cell <cell name>] [-noauth] [-localauth] [-help]

bos removeu -s <machine name> -u <user names>+
    [-c <cell name>] [-n] [-l] [-h]

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

So the bos removeuser command takes every single user name you throw at it with the -user argument and removes them from the /etc/openafs/server/UserList file. Where's that file? On the machine you named with the -server argument. That's it, that's the whole vibe ✨

💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -server <machine name> — says which server machine we're editing the /etc/openafs/server/UserList file on. You can identify the machine by IP address or by host name (fully-qualified, or abbreviated as long as it's unambiguous — the machine girlies will know). More deets? Go read bos(8) 🦋

and okay, important context: in cells that use the Update Server to distribute the contents of the /etc/openafs/server directory, the convention is to only name the system control machine as the value for -server. Otherwise you just repeat the command for every file server machine. There's a whole discussion in bos(8) if you want it 💜

• -user <user names>+ — lists each and every user name to remove. yes you can stack them, the + said so 😌
• -cell <cell name> — names the cell to run the command in. Do NOT combine this with the -localauth flag — they are not friends. More details in bos(8) 🌈
• -noauth — gives the issuer the unprivileged identity "anonymous". Do not combine this flag with -localauth either, no cap. More in bos(8) 🍓
• -localauth — constructs a server ticket using a key from the local /etc/openafs/server/KeyFile or /etc/openafs/server/KeyFileExt file. Then the bos command interpreter hands that ticket to the BOS Server during mutual authentication. Do not combine this flag with -cell or -noauth — pick a lane bestie. More in bos(8) 🧚
• -help — prints the online help for this command. and it's giving "main character energy" because all other valid options are ignored when it shows up. periodt 👑

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🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

here's the moment you've been waiting for: this one removes the users "pat" and "jones" from the UserList file on the system control machine "fs1.example.com". iconic.

% bos removeuser -server fs1.example.com -user pat jones

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👑 PRIVILEGE REQUIRED 👑

The issuer must be listed in the /etc/openafs/server/UserList file on the machine named by the -server argument. OR — plot twist — they must be logged onto a server machine as the local superuser "root" if the -localauth flag is included. no shortcuts, bestie 💀

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

KeyFile(5), KeyFileExt(5), UserList(5), bos(8), bos_addkey(8), bos_listkeys(8)

💖 COPYRIGHT 💖

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.

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ok that's the whole page bestie, go forth and remove those users responsibly 💅✨

mwah 💋 this was OpenAFS, dated 2026-07-27 — catch you on the next manpage 🫶🎀