# Add user manually without using cli

**URL:** <https://dmap-community.ductus.global/t/add-user-manually-without-using-cli/4197>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [September 13, 2022, 12:41pm UTC](https://dmap-community.ductus.global/t/add-user-manually-without-using-cli/4197 "2022-09-13T12:41:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kusto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@Kusto](https://dmap-community.ductus.global/u/Kusto)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2022, 12:41pm UTC](https://dmap-community.ductus.global/t/add-user-manually-without-using-cli/4197/1 "2022-09-13T12:41:28Z")

</div>

im still learning confd, and i wonder is it possible to add user without using cli?  
the first thought that come to my mind is to edit : `/etc/confd/cdb/config_init.xml`

```auto
<aaa xmlns="http://tail-f.com/ns/aaa/1.1">
    <authentication>
      <users>
        <user>
          <name>test</name>
          <uid>1000</uid>
          <gid>1000</gid>
          <password>$1$5Q5b/7cc$xyslIcrVzIq0Jc75RfDRt0</password>
          <ssh_keydir>/dev/null</ssh_keydir>
          <homedir>/dev/null</homedir>
        </user>
      </users>
    </authentication>
    <ios>

```

so if i add in the /config\_init.xml same info as above but with diffrent login, will it work? or can it be done?

```auto
<aaa xmlns="http://tail-f.com/ns/aaa/1.1">
    <authentication>
      <users>
 <user>
          <name>test</name>
          <uid>1000</uid>
          <gid>1000</gid>
          <password>$1$5Q5b/7cc$xyslIcrVzIq0Jc75RfDRt0</password>
          <ssh_keydir>/dev/null</ssh_keydir>
          <homedir>/dev/null</homedir>
        </user>
        <user>
          <name>test2</name>
          <uid>1000</uid>
          <gid>1000</gid>
          <password>$1$5Q5b/7cc$xyslIcrVzIq0Jc75RfDRt0</password>
          <ssh_keydir>/dev/null</ssh_keydir>
          <homedir>/dev/null</homedir>
        </user>
      </users>
    </authentication>
    <ios>

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![josephm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a88e57/32.png) [@josephm](https://dmap-community.ductus.global/u/josephm)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2022, 1:08pm UTC](https://dmap-community.ductus.global/t/add-user-manually-without-using-cli/4197/2 "2022-09-13T13:08:26Z")

</div>

Hello,

You can of course modify your `_init.xml` file(s) and set users as you need, but it will work only if you then start ConfD “for the first time” / with empty CDB. The `_init.xml` files are loaded by ConfD only if the database is empty/non-existent - on initial population…

If you want to load new users later when CDB configuration already exists/runs, you may need to use either northbound APIs like CLI/NETCONF/other, or e.g. tools like `confd_cli` (that basically uses ConfD C library to invoke its job (or you could program own tool/code with `libconfd` to do the same).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kusto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@Kusto](https://dmap-community.ductus.global/u/Kusto)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 11:15am UTC](https://dmap-community.ductus.global/t/add-user-manually-without-using-cli/4197/3 "2022-09-14T11:15:40Z")

</div>

thanks for reply josephm,can i have some examples of commands that i need to use fo confd\_cli or netconf to add the user?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mvf](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex010/user_avatar/dmap-community.ductus.global/mvf/32/182_2.png) [@mvf](https://dmap-community.ductus.global/u/mvf)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2022, 12:27pm UTC](https://dmap-community.ductus.global/t/add-user-manually-without-using-cli/4197/4 "2022-09-15T12:27:04Z")

</div>

You should start with the ConfD user guide and with examples, both the NETCONF protocol as well as the `confd_cmd` tool is used there. More specificaly, `confd_cmd` (this is probably what josephm meant, `confd_cli` is a CLI client even though it can be used in a batch mode) is shown in several use cases in the `misc/shell_tools` example, `netconf-console`, a NETCONF client tool, is shown both in the user guide as well as in several examples including the introductory one.

I suspect that none of those exactly show how to add a user, but once you understand the concept it should be fairly simple. For `netconf-console`, the principle usually is that you prepare the configuration in the XML form and use `--edit-config` to apply it - see the mentioned examples.

For `confd_cmd`, you need to specify what instances to create and what values should be set, e.g. like this:

```auto
$ userpath='/aaa/authentication/users/user{newuser}'
$ confd_cmd << EOF
mcreate $userpath
mset $userpath/uid 12345
mset $userpath/gid 100
mset $userpath/password secret
mset $userpath/ssh_keydir /tmp
mset $userpath/homedir /tmp
EOF

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kusto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@Kusto](https://dmap-community.ductus.global/u/Kusto)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2022, 7:50pm UTC](https://dmap-community.ductus.global/t/add-user-manually-without-using-cli/4197/5 "2022-09-15T19:50:24Z")

</div>

thanks fro the naswer mvf, but i cant use any api. I want to know is it some option to modify confd or netconf file where the system will load it and the new user will be added. Actually im not truly understand from where the system load confd file, if joseph said that

> [@josephm](#):
>
> The `_init.xml` files are loaded by ConfD only if the database is empty/non-existent - on initial population…

so from were it takes the data to laod if it reads xml files only if db is empty

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![josephm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a88e57/32.png) [@josephm](https://dmap-community.ductus.global/u/josephm)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2022, 11:06am UTC](https://dmap-community.ductus.global/t/add-user-manually-without-using-cli/4197/6 "2022-09-16T11:06:11Z")

</div>

What i meant by loading `_init.xml` files, is described in ConfD user guide - chapter “Loading initial data into CDB”.