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GROUP(5)		      File Formats Manual		      GROUP(5)

NAME
       group --	format of the group permissions	file

DESCRIPTION
       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 `:'	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 com-
       ments, 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	 asso-
       ciated with the group name.  They should	both be	unique across the sys-
       tem  (and  often	across a group of systems) since they control file ac-
       cess.  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.

IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
       The passwd(1) command does not change the group passwords.   The	 pw(8)
       utility's groupmod command should be used instead.

LIMITS
       There are various limitations which are explained in the	function where
       they occur; see section "SEE ALSO".

       In  older  implementations,  a group cannot have	more than 200 members.
       The maximum line	length of /etc/group is	1024 characters.  Longer lines
       will be skipped.	 This limitation disappeared in	 FreeBSD  3.0.	 Older
       binaries	that are statically linked, depend on old shared libraries, or
       non-FreeBSD binaries in compatibility mode may still have this limit.

FILES
       /etc/group

SEE ALSO
       newgrp(1),     passwd(1),    setgroups(2),    crypt(3),	  getgrent(3),
       initgroups(3), nsswitch.conf(5),	passwd(5), chkgrp(8), pw(8), yp(8)

HISTORY
       A group file format appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.  Support for  com-
       ments first appeared in FreeBSD 3.0.

FreeBSD	14.3		       February	8, 2013			      GROUP(5)

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