Manpages - group.5

group - user group file

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.

/etc/group

As the 4.2BSD *initgroups*(3) man page says: no one seems to keep /etc/group up-to-date.

*chgrp*(1), *gpasswd*(1), *groups*(1), *login*(1), *newgrp*(1), *sg*(1), *getgrent*(3), *getgrnam*(3), *gshadow*(5), *passwd*(5), *vigr*(8)

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