man5/group.5

   1 .\" Copyright (c) 1993 Michael Haardt (michael@moria.de),
   2 .\"     Fri Apr  2 11:32:09 MET DST 1993
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  24 .\" Modified Sat Jul 24 17:06:03 1993 by Rik Faith (faith@cs.unc.edu)
  25 .TH GROUP 5 2009-10-17 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
  26 .SH NAME
  27 group \- user group file
  28 .SH DESCRIPTION
  29 \fI/etc/group\fP is a text file which defines the groups on the system.
  30 There is one entry per line, with the following format:
  31 .sp
  32 .RS
  33 group_name:password:GID:user_list
  34 .RE
  35 .sp
  36 The field descriptions are:
  37 .TP 12
  38 .I group_name
  39 the name of the group.
  40 .TP
  41 .I password
  42 the (encrypted) group password.
  43 If this field is empty, no password is needed.
  44 .TP
  45 .I GID
  46 the numerical group ID.
  47 .TP
  48 .I user_list
  49 a list of the usernames that are members of this group, separated by commas.
  50 .SH FILES
  51 /etc/group
  52 .SH BUGS
  53 As the 4.2BSD
  54 .BR initgroups (3)
  55 man page says: No-one seems to keep
  56 .I /etc/group
  57 up-to-date.
  58 .SH "SEE ALSO"
  59 .BR login (1),
  60 .BR newgrp (1),
  61 .BR getgrent (3),
  62 .BR getgrnam (3),
  63 .BR passwd (5)