1.\" $NetBSD: group.5,v 1.3 1994/11/30 19:31:19 jtc Exp $ 2.\" 3.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1991, 1993 4.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 5.\" 6.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 7.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 8.\" are met: 9.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 11.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 12.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 13.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 14.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software 15.\" must display the following acknowledgement: 16.\" This product includes software developed by the University of 17.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. 18.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 19.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 20.\" without specific prior written permission. 21.\" 22.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 23.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 24.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 25.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 26.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 27.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 28.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 29.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 30.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 31.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 32.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 33.\" 34.\" @(#)group.5 8.3 (Berkeley) 4/19/94 35.\" 36.Dd April 19, 1994 37.Dt GROUP 5 38.Os 39.Sh NAME 40.Nm group 41.Nd format of the group permissions file 42.Sh DESCRIPTION 43The file 44.Aq Pa /etc/group 45consists of newline separated 46.Tn ASCII 47records, one per group, containing four colon 48.Ql \&: 49separated fields. These fields are as follows: 50.Bl -tag -width password -offset indent -compact 51.It group 52Name of the group. 53.It passwd 54Group's 55.Em encrypted 56password. 57.It gid 58The group's decimal ID. 59.It member 60Group members. 61.El 62.Pp 63The 64.Ar group 65field is the group name used for granting file access to users 66who are members of the group. 67The 68.Ar gid 69field is the number associated with the group name. 70They should both be unique across the system (and often 71across a group of systems) since they control file access. 72The 73.Ar passwd 74field 75is an optional 76.Em encrypted 77password. 78This field is rarely used 79and an asterisk is normally placed in it rather than leaving it blank. 80The 81.Ar member 82field contains the names of users granted the privileges of 83.Ar group . 84The member names are separated by commas without spaces or newlines. 85A user is automatically in a group if that group was specified 86in their 87.Pa /etc/passwd 88entry and does not need to be added to that group in the 89.Pa /etc/group file. 90.\" .Pp 91.\" When the system reads the file 92.\" .Pa /etc/group 93.\" the fields are read into the structure 94.\" .Fa group 95.\" declared in 96.\" .Aq Pa grp.h : 97.\" .Bd -literal -offset indent 98.\" struct group { 99.\" char *gr_name; /* group name */ 100.\" char *gr_passwd; /* group password */ 101.\" int gr_gid; /* group id */ 102.\" char **gr_mem; /* group members */ 103.\" }; 104.\" .Ed 105.Sh FILES 106.Bl -tag -width /etc/group -compact 107.It Pa /etc/group 108.El 109.Sh SEE ALSO 110.Xr setgroups 2 , 111.Xr initgroups 3 , 112.Xr crypt 3 , 113.Xr passwd 1 , 114.Xr passwd 5 115.Sh BUGS 116The 117.Xr passwd 1 118command does not change the 119.Nm group 120passwords. 121.Sh HISTORY 122A 123.Nm 124file format appeared in 125.At v6 . 126