Section 5 · File formats
group.5
Package: man-pages
group
NAME
DESCRIPTION
FILES
BUGS
SEE ALSO
NAME
group − user group file
DESCRIPTION
The /etc/group file is a text file that defines the groups on the system. There is one entry per line, with the following format:
group_name:password:GID:user_list
The fields are as follows: *
group_name*
the name of the group.
password
the (encrypted) group password. If this field is empty, no password is needed.
| GID | the numeric group ID. |
user_list
a list of the usernames that are members of this group, separated by commas.
FILES
/etc/group
BUGS
As the 4.2BSD initgroups(3) man page says: no one seems to keep /etc/group up-to-date.
SEE ALSO
chgrp(1), gpasswd(1), groups(1), login(1), newgrp(1), sg(1), getgrent(3), getgrnam(3), gshadow(5), passwd(5), vigr(8)