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I would like to know whether there is any simple shell command to change the user home directory in Linux/Unix (one similar to chsh which changes the default login shell of an existing valid user) without touching the /etc/passwd file. Thanks
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You can use the usermod command to change the default home directory for a user. What this command does is edit the file /etc/passwd. Opening /etc/passwd you will find there is a line for every user, including system users (mysql, posftix, etc), with seven fields per line denoted by colons.
You need to edit the /etc/passwd file to change home directory of users that are currently logged in. Edit the /etc/passwd with sudo vipw and change home directory of the user.
By default, it's /home/{username}.
Ibrahim's comment on the other answer is the correct way to alter an existing user's home directory.
usermod -d /newhome/username username usermod is the command to edit an existing user. -d (abbreviation for --home) will change the user's home directory.
usermod -m -d /newhome/username username -m (abbreviation for --move-home) will move the content from the user's current directory to the new directory.
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