#!/bin/bash
# -*- mode:shell-script -*-

# The easiest method for hiding system users (if their user ID is <
# 500) in the login window is to run the following command:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow Hide500Users -bool TRUE


# Alternatively you can manually hide just the username by running

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow HiddenUsersList -array-add '_postgres'



# To hide the 'Others...' item from the login window if need be:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow SHOWOTHERUSERS_MANAGED -bool FALSE






dscl . create /Users/test
dscl . create /Users/test UniqueID 420
dscl . create /Users/test PrimaryGroupID 420
dscl . create /Users/test UserShell /bin/bash
dscl . create /Users/test NFSHomeDirectory /tmp
dscl . create /Users/test RealName Test
dscl . create /Users/test Password test
# This creates a user that's visible in sysprefs/Accounts.


dscl . create /Users/test Password "*"
# This hides the user. Make sure you quote the "*" or it won't work.


# EDIT: I accidentally managed to recreate googletorp's situation of
# not being able to hide a user by setting his password to "*", and I
# discovered how to fix it. This time, I had created a user using
# dsimport, like this:

dsimport /dev/fd/0 /Local/Default I --template StandardUser << EOF
test:*:520:520:Test user:/Users/test:/bin/bash
EOF

#  But in that command, the * is taken to represent a literal
#  one-character password of *, and so dsimport creates an
#  AuthenticationAuthority property for the user and sets the password
#  property to the shadow hash of * (which shows up as ******** in
#  dscl, as for all passwords). After that, attempting to set the
#  password to "*" using dscl just keeps setting the password to a
#  literal *, instead of disabling the password. The solution is to
#  delete the unwanted property, and then disable the password:

sudo dscl . delete /Users/test AuthenticationAuthority
sudo dscl . create /Users/test Password "*"
# This hides the user.