man userdel: description of -f is confusing

[martinvonwittich]

man userdel says about the -f flag:

       -f, --force
           This option forces the removal of the user account, even if the user is still logged in. It also forces
           userdel to remove the user's home directory and mail spool, even if another user uses the same home
           directory or if the mail spool is not owned by the specified user.[...]

This seems confusing to me - I want to remove a user who has still processes running, so I think I need the -f flag, but I absolutely do not want to delete the user's home directory. I assume that the description actually means that the combination of -r and -f will delete the user's home directory (even if another user uses the same home), but the description makes it sound as if just specifying -f will cause userdel to delete the home directory.

[alejandro-colomar]

Agree, the wording should be clarified.

Reading the source code it seems to only remove the checks but not do more than you explicitly asked for.

How about this?:

This option forces the removal of the user account and any other requested actions,
skipping any safety checks.