Comment 2 for bug 603283

Thank you for this report. I can understand there are differences in distros sometimes. The default configuration for Debian is to not create the home directory. You have to explicitly use the -m option to do so.

Curiously, the question of whether to automatically create the home directory is not part of the defaults (/etc/defaults/useradd) as far as I can see.

Also, the -d option by itself is not quite what it seems. I note this from the changelog:

    - debian/patches/459_better_document_useradd_-d
      Better document, in useradd.8, that the home_dir specified
      with -d is not created if it does not exist
      Closes: #154996

And:

   - useradd requires the -m option to make it create a home directory
      if one does not exist, closes: #39581

So this specific behavior was decided upon in Debian. It is possible, for different reasons, Fedora chose a different default behavior in this respect.

In any case, I think the package maintainer should now have enough info to understand if this needs to be changed, better documented, or left alone.