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group(4)
NAME
  group - Group file

DESCRIPTION
  The /etc/group database contains the following information for each group:

    ·  Group name

    ·  Encrypted password

    ·  Numerical group ID

    ·  A comma-separated list of all users allowed in the group

       Note: Do not put any spaces between a comma and a username; otherwise,
       the username following the comma will not be made a part of the
       desired group.

  The /etc/group file is an ASCII file, with the fields separated by colons.
  Each group is separated from the next by a new line.	If the password field
  is null, no password is demanded.

  Because of the encrypted passwords, it can and does have general read
  permission and can be used, for example, to map numerical group IDs to
  names.

  Note that commands or scripts used for adding users to groups are subject
  to the 225 character limit on line lengths.  However, you can split lines
  as appropriate.

RESTRICTIONS
   1.  Increasing the number of groups that a user is in beyond 16 can affect
       services that use ONC RPC.  Tru64 UNIX ONC RPC supports up to 32
       groups for compatibility with ULTRIX Version 4.2 and higher.  Other
       vendors may support only 16 groups.  ULTRIX versions before 4.2
       support up to 8 groups.	Users who increase their group membership
       beyond 8 or 16 groups will not be able to NFS mount file systems from
       servers that only support 8 or 16 groups over NFS. In addition, if
       root group membership is increased beyond 8 or 16, the NIS service
       will not work in a mixed NIS server environment where the servers
       support only 8 or 16 groups.

   2.  The addgroup command limits the length of a group name to eight
       characters or less.

FILES
  /etc/group




RELATED INFORMATION
  Commands:  addgroup(8), groupadd(8), adduser(8), groups(1), passwd(1)

  Functions:  setgroups(2)

  Routines:  initgroups(3)

  Files:  passwd(4)

Index for Section 4

Alphabetical listing for G

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