MULTGRPS(1) MULTGRPS(1)
multgrps - spawn a shell with membership in multiple groups
multgrps [-]
multgrps creates a new shell process which is simultaneously a member of
all groups to which the invoking user belongs.
Every user belongs to a default group specified in /etc/passwd. Any
additional group memberships are listed in the file /etc/group.
Traditional System V allows processes to be in only one group at any
given time; that group may be changed via the newgrp(1) command. A
process has group access privileges only to the files whose group ID
matches the process's current value. BSD and POSIX systems provide the
capability for processes to be members of more than one group at a time.
Since IRIX is based on System V, processes are in single-group mode by
default. The multgrps(1) command is analogous to newgrp(1) with the
salient difference that the new shell spawned by multgrps is a member of
all groups with which the user's login name is listed in /etc/group, in
addition to the group defined in the /etc/passwd entry.
multgrps initializes the group-set of which the calling process (user) is
a member. It uses an initgroups(3X) call to obtain the groups from the
file /etc/group or its NIS equivalent, then spawns a new shell which is a
member of them all. The user remains logged in and the current directory
is unchanged, but calculations of access permissions to files are
performed with respect to the entire set of group IDs. The user is
always given a new shell, replacing the current shell, by multgrps,
regardless of whether the user is a member of any supplemental groups.
In that shell the first group in the list is always the group ID from the
user's entry in the /etc/passwd file.
Exported variables retain their values after invoking multgrps; however,
all unexported variables are either reset to their default value or set
to null. System variables (such as PS1, PS2, PATH, MAIL, and HOME),
unless exported by the system or explicitly exported by the user, are
reset to default values. For example, a user has a primary prompt string
(PS1) other than $ (default) and has not exported PS1. After an
invocation of multgrps their PS1 will be set to the default prompt string
$. Note that the shell command export (see sh(1)) is the method of
exporting variables so that they retain their assigned value when
invoking new shells.
If the first argument to multgrps is a -, the environment is changed to
what would be expected if the user actually logged in again.
The multiple-group shell may be terminated via "exit", which returns to
the previous shell.
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MULTGRPS(1) MULTGRPS(1)
No group password checking is performed. Since /etc/group is a system
file (writable only by superuser), it is assumed that protection against
unintended group-membership is provided by those restricted file
permissions.
The set of active group IDs may be displayed by invoking id(1) or
groups(1). If multgrps has not been called only the group ID from the
user's entry in /etc/passwd will be listed.
The maximum number of groups of which a process may be a member is
defined (as an lbootable option) in /var/sysgen/master.d/kernel, named
NGROUPS_MAX.
/etc/group system group file
/etc/passwd system password file
newgrp(1), login(1), id(1), sh(1), getgroups(2), setgroups(2),
initgroups(3X), group(4), passwd(4), environ(5)
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