GROUP

Section: File Formats (5)
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BSD mandoc
 

NAME

group - format of the group permissions file  

DESCRIPTION

The file Aq Pa /etc/group consists of newline separated ASCII records, one per group, containing four colon `:' separated fields. These fields are as follows:

group
Name of the group.
passwd
Group's encrypted password.
gid
The group's decimal ID.
member
Group members.

The group field is the group name used for granting file access to users who are members of the group. The gid field is the number associated with the group name. They should both be unique across the system (and often across a group of systems) since they control file access. The passwd field is an optional encrypted password. This field is rarely used and an asterisk is normally placed in it rather than leaving it blank. The member field contains the names of users granted the priviledges of group The member names are separated by commas with out spaces or newlines. A user is automatically in a group if that group was specified in their /etc/passwd entry and does not need to be added to that group in the /etc/group file.  

FILES

/etc/group

 

SEE ALSO

setgroups(2), initgroups(3), crypt(3), passwd(1), passwd(5)  

BUGS

The passwd(1) command does not change the group passwords.  

HISTORY

A file format appeared in AT&T System v6 .


 

Index

NAME
DESCRIPTION
FILES
SEE ALSO
BUGS
HISTORY

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Time: 06:48:07 GMT, May 19, 2025