Master Linux Like a Pro: Dive into the 2025 RHEL Red Hat Challenge!

The file that contains user account information in RHEL is /etc/passwd. This critical file stores essential details about each user account on the system, including the username, password placeholder, user ID (UID), group ID (GID), user information (such as the user's full name), home directory, and the shell that is launched when the user logs in.

This structure is vital for user authentication and authorization processes. Each line in the /etc/passwd file corresponds to a single user account, and while the actual password is not stored in this file for security reasons, it has a placeholder that indicates where the password would be managed (usually through shadow passwords stored in /etc/shadow).

This design allows for straightforward user management and serves as the backbone of the user account system in RHEL and other Unix-like operating systems. Understanding the significance and format of this file is crucial for system administration tasks such as adding, modifying, or removing user accounts.