How to deactivate/disable user temporarily in Linux

  Option 1:

To disable user, use following commands

$usermod    -s      /sbin/nologin    <UserName>

OR

$usermod   -s  /bin/false   <UserName>


Both of the following command will change entry of UserName in /etc/passwd and set their shell to given shell. In our case it is either /sbin/nologin or /bin/false.

To enable user, use the same command again and give with /bin/bash or /bin/sh shell.

Option 2:

Other option is to Lock User with following command

$passwd    -l   <UserName>

The -l option disables an account by changing the password to a value which matches no possible encrypted value.


To Unlock user, Use following command

$passwd   -u    <UserName>

The -u option re-enables an account by changing the password back to its previous value