NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     group - format of the group permissions file

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     The file /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 privileges
  of  group.   The member names are separated by commas
without 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.

YP SUPPORT    [Toc]    [Back]

     If YP is active, the group file may also  contain  lines  of
the format

           +name:*::

     which  causes  the  specified  group to be included from the
group.byname YP
     map.  If no group name is specified, or the `+' (plus  sign)
appears alone
     on a line, all groups are included from the YP map.

     YP  references may appear anywhere in the file, but the single `+' form
     should be on the last line, for  historical  reasons.   Only
the first group
     with  a specific name encountered, whether in the group file
itself, or
     included via YP, will be used.

FILES    [Toc]    [Back]

     /etc/group

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

     passwd(1), setgroups(2), crypt(3), initgroups(3), passwd(5),
yp(8)

HISTORY    [Toc]    [Back]

     A group file format appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.

     The YP file format first appeared in SunOS.

BUGS    [Toc]    [Back]

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

     Lines  in  /etc/group  are  limited  to 1024 characters.  YP
groups are not
     affected by this limit.

     Groups are limited to a maximum of 200 members per group.

OpenBSD     3.6                           July      18,      1995