Safely Changing a Linux User's Home Directory with usermod -d

How to safely relocate a Linux user's home directory

July 9, 2026

Safely Changing a Linux User's Home Directory with usermod -d

There are times when you need to change the location of a specific user's home directory due to insufficient disk space or migration to a separate storage.

Although changing the path itself with usermod -d is simple, if the user is currently logged in or data consistency is crucial, it is safer to proceed in order: terminating sessions, backing up, and setting permissions.

1. Check for Active Sessions and Processes

Before relocating the home directory, check if the user is currently logged in or running any processes.


Check processes and sessions owned by the user
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2. Terminate the User's Sessions

Terminate all remaining processes and sessions.


Kill all processes and sessions for the user
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pkill -KILL -u terminates all processes owned by the user, and on systemd-based distributions, loginctl terminate-user can clean up login sessions as well.

3. Backup the Existing Home Directory

While usermod -d -m automatically moves existing data, it is recommended to create a separate backup first because it is difficult to revert if it fails.


Backup home directory with rsync
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rsync -aHAX preserves permissions, hard links, ACLs, and extended attributes (xattrs), making it ideal for home directory backups.

You can also back it up in the same way using cp.


Alternative: backup with cp
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4. Set Ownership and Permissions on the New Home Directory

Double-check that the ownership and permissions of the backup copy exactly match the original.


Fix ownership and permissions
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Use chown -R to recursively match ownership, and specify 700 (accessible only by the owner)—the default permission for a home directory—using chmod.

5. Change the Home Directory with usermod

Once both data and permissions are ready in the new path, change only the home directory path with usermod -d.


Change the user's home directory
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If you have already backed up manually, simply changing the path without the -m option is sufficient.
Using the -m option together allows usermod to directly move the contents of the old home directory to the new path. However, this fails if the new path already exists, so we do not use it in this case where we have already backed up in advance.

6. Verify the Change

Verify that the changed home directory has been correctly applied.


Verify the new home directory
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7. Clean Up the Old Home Directory

Only delete the old directory after verifying that logging in and working in the new home directory works without issues.


Remove the old home directory once verified
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Bonus: Creating a New User with a Custom Home Directory

Instead of relocating an existing user, you can also create a new user and specify your desired path as their home directory from the start.


Create a new user with a custom home directory
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-d specifies the home directory path, -m creates the home directory at that path and copies default files from /etc/skel, and -s specifies the login shell.

Command Summary

Command	Description
`ps -u <user>` / `who` / `w`	Check active processes and sessions of the user
`pkill -KILL -u <user>`	Force-terminate user-owned processes
`loginctl terminate-user <user>`	Terminate systemd login sessions
`rsync -aHAX src/ dst/`	Backup preserving permissions, hard links, ACLs, and xattrs
`chown -R <user>:<group> <dir>`	Recursively change directory ownership
`chmod 700 <dir>`	Set default permissions for home directory
`usermod -d <newhome> <user>`	Change the home directory path
`usermod -d <newhome> -m <user>`	Change home directory and move data simultaneously
`useradd -m -d <newhome> -s <shell> <user>`	Create a new user with the specified path as their home directory

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