group (5) Linux Manual Page
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)
Colophon
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