Backtalk Administration Guide:

User Deletion

Version 1.3.30

© 1996-2003 Jan Wolter, Steve Weiss

If your Backtalk system is set up so that users log in to Backtalk with real Unix accounts, then you can't use Backtalk to delete accounts. Use the Unix account administration tools instead.

However, if your system is set up so users log in with Backtalk accounts, then you can delete these Backtalk user accounts using either the Pistachio Web interface, or with the command-line "btrmuser" program. Just follow the following steps. (The checkboxes below perform no function - they are just for your convenience.)

Warning:

Backtalk doesn't currently check or warn you if you delete the fairwitness of a conference. This can be a problem, because if another account is later created with the same name as the old fairwitness, then this new user becomes the fairwitness of the conference. We hope to fix this in a later release. For now, be careful.

Deleting Users by using Web Interface's 'Edit User' tool

This is convenient if you only want to delete one user and know that user's login name.
  1. Log into the administration account

    See the logging in instructions.

  2. Follow the 'Edit User Account' link in the 'User' section of the menu.
  3. Enter the user's login ID and click 'Edit'.
  4. Click the 'Delete user account' link at the bottom of the page.
  5. Click the 'Yes' on the confirmation page.

Deleting Users by using Web Interface's 'User List' tool

This is convenient if you don't know the login names of the users you want to delete or if you want to delete more than one user.
  1. Log into the administration account

    See the logging in instructions.

  2. Follow the 'List Users' link in the 'User' section of the menu.

    You will get a control panel for doing searches for users.

  3. Select users to list.

    Use the various controls to select which users you want to see. If you leave the controls in their default setting, you will get a list of all users. These controls are very flexible and can list many different subsets of your users. You can select them by name, group, registration date, last login date, or status, or combinations of these.

    Select the "Detailed Information and Edit Buttons" option if you just want to delete a few users. Select the "Select for Deletion" option if you want to delete most of the users you are listing.

    Click the 'Do Scan' button to start your search. A listing of all selected users will appear below the control panel.

  4. Delete the users.

    If you used the "Detailed Information and Edit Buttons" option, find the user you want to delete. There is a red 'Delete' button next to each login name. Click that button for the user you want to delete.

    If you used the "Select for Deletion" option, go through and uncheck all users you do not want to delete. Note that the default is to delete every account listed, and all checkboxes (expect those for users whose primary group is cfadm) are pre-checked by default. When you have only users you want to delete checked, click on the "Delete Checked Users" button.

  5. Confirm the deletion

    You will be asked if you really want to delete the users you selected. If you do, click the "Yes" button.

Deleting Users by using btrmuser from Unix

  1. Log into the Unix conference administration account

    This is the account that owns all the conference files, user database files, and Backtalk itself.

  2. Run the btrmuser command

    If you want to delete the user "victim" then issue the following command: 

        btrmuser victim
    It will ask you if you really want to delete poor "victim", and do so if you say yes.

    If you want to delete several users, do: 

        btrmuser larry curly moe
    If you don't want to be asked for if you really want to delete each user you listed on the command line, do: 
        btrmuser -f larry curly moe