group(5) File Formats Manual group(5)

group - user group file

The /etc/group file is a text file that defines the groups on the system. There is one entry per line, with the following format:


group_name:password:GID:user_list

The fields are as follows:

the name of the group.
the (encrypted) group password. If this field is empty, no password is needed.
the numeric group ID.
a list of the usernames that are members of this group, separated by commas.

/etc/group

As the 4.2BSD initgroups(3) man page says: no one seems to keep /etc/group up-to-date.

chgrp(1), gpasswd(1), groups(1), login(1), newgrp(1), sg(1), getgrent(3), getgrnam(3), gshadow(5), passwd(5), vigr(8)

2023-10-31 Linux man-pages 6.06