In fact, there are two ways around this. Either don't give the user a home directory, or put it in a hidden place. Accounts don't really NEED a home directory, particularly if it runs with root permission. A good place to hide a home directory is /var/root, which is the home directory for the root account. When creating a new user, following line will set the home directory as /var/root:

sudo dscl localhost create /Local/Default/Users/$USERNAME home /var/root

Otherwise, just do not specify a home directory.

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This is not a good idea at all. W/O a home directory the behavior of some programs can become un-predictiable. Remember OS X is UNIX now, and there are certain things that you have to deal with.


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If this were a normal user account, I would agree with you. But for most (if not all) administrative functions, a home directory does not seem to be necessary. You may get an error here and there, but everything from ARD to Disk Utility, System Preferences and Terminal all work as usual. You can download files, install software, delete and add accounts, change system settings, et cetera.

About the only thing you don't get is permanence between logins, because there is no ~/Library to save settings to. For my purposes, this doesn't really bother me. Plus, it keeps overhead for the hidden account to a bare minimum.

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I agree. I tried this with a 10.4.11 iMac and while it created the user fine and hides it from the login window, it does leave problems... it doesn't provide a home directory setup, trying to get into System Preferences > Accounts results in a blank panel, and running a few commands/apps result in slow performance since there isn't a /Users/$USER/Library folder to write to. I was initially very excited, but this needs a user home in order to be a complete solution.

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