The
group
file is the local source of group information.
It can be used in conjunction with the Hesiod domain
`group', and the NIS maps `group.byname' and `group.bygid',
as controlled by
nsswitch.conf(5).
The file
group
consists of newline separated
ASCII
records, one per group, containing four colon
‘amp;:’
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.
|
|
Lines whose first non-whitespace character is a pound-sign (#)
are comments, and are ignored.
Blank lines that consist
only of spaces, tabs or newlines are also ignored.
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
group
file.
