GROUPADD

OPTIONS

The options which apply to thegroupaddcommand are:

-f, --force

This option causes the command to simply exit with success status if the specified group already exists. When used with-g, and the specified GID already exists, another (unique) GID is chosen (i.e.-gis turned off).

-g, --gid GID

The numerical value of the group's ID. This value must be unique, unless the-ooption is used. The value must be non-negative. The default is to use the smallest ID value greater than or equal toGID_MINand greater than every other group.

See also the-roption and theGID_MAXdescription.

-h, --help

Display help message and exit.

-K, --key KEY=VALUE

Overrides/etc/login.defsdefaults (GID_MIN, GID_MAX and others). Multiple-Koptions can be specified.

Example:-K GID_MIN=100 -K GID_MAX=499

Note:-K GID_MIN=10,GID_MAX=499doesn't work yet.

-o, --non-unique

This option permits to add a group with a non-unique GID.

-p, --password PASSWORD

The encrypted password, as returned bycrypt(3). The default is to disable the password.

Note:This option is not recommended because the password (or encrypted password) will be visible by users listing the processes.

You should make sure the password respects the system's password policy.

-r, --system

Create a system group.

The numeric identifiers of new system groups are chosen in theSYS_GID_MIN-SYS_GID_MAXrange, defined inlogin.defs, instead ofGID_MIN-GID_MAX.

-R, --root CHROOT_DIR

Apply changes in theCHROOT_DIRdirectory and use the configuration files from theCHROOT_DIRdirectory.

-P, --prefix PREFIX_DIR

Apply changes in thePREFIX_DIRdirectory and use the configuration files from thePREFIX_DIRdirectory. This option does not chroot and is intended for preparing a cross-compilation target. Some limitations: NIS and LDAP users/groups are not verified. PAM authentication is using the host files. No SELINUX support.

CONFIGURATION

The following configuration variables in/etc/login.defschange the behavior of this tool:

GID_MAX (number), GID_MIN (number)

Range of group IDs used for the creation of regular groups byuseradd,groupadd, ornewusers.

The default value forGID_MIN(resp.GID_MAX) is 1000 (resp. 60000).

MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP (number)

Maximum members per group entry. When the maximum is reached, a new group entry (line) is started in/etc/group(with the same name, same password, and same GID).

The default value is 0, meaning that there are no limits in the number of members in a group.

This feature (split group) permits to limit the length of lines in the group file. This is useful to make sure that lines for NIS groups are not larger than 1024 characters.

If you need to enforce such limit, you can use 25.

Note: split groups may not be supported by all tools (even in the Shadow toolsuite). You should not use this variable unless you really need it.

SYS_GID_MAX (number), SYS_GID_MIN (number)

Range of group IDs used for the creation of system groups byuseradd,groupadd, ornewusers.

The default value forSYS_GID_MIN(resp.SYS_GID_MAX) is 101 (resp.GID_MIN-1).

FILES

/etc/group

Group account information.

/etc/gshadow

Secure group account information.

/etc/login.defs

Shadow password suite configuration.

CAVEATS

Groupnames must start with a lower case letter or an underscore, followed by lower case letters, digits, underscores, or dashes. They can end with a dollar sign. In regular expression terms: [a-z_][a-z0-9_-]*[$]?

Groupnames may only be up to 16 characters long.

You may not add a NIS or LDAP group. This must be performed on the corresponding server.

If the groupname already exists in an external group database such as NIS or LDAP,groupaddwill deny the group creation request. 

EXIT VALUES

Thegroupaddcommand exits with the following values:

0

success

2

invalid command syntax

3

invalid argument to option

4

GID not unique (when-onot used)

9

group name not unique

10

can't update group file

SEE ALSO

chfn(1),chsh(1),passwd(1),gpasswd(8),groupdel(8),groupmod(8),login.defs(5),useradd(8),userdel(8),usermod(8).

Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

OPTIONS

CONFIGURATION

FILES

CAVEATS

EXIT VALUES

SEE ALSO