xref: /freebsd/lib/libsys/setgroups.2 (revision 1edb7116)
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28.Dd January 19, 2018
29.Dt SETGROUPS 2
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm setgroups
33.Nd set group access list
34.Sh LIBRARY
35.Lb libc
36.Sh SYNOPSIS
37.In sys/param.h
38.In unistd.h
39.Ft int
40.Fn setgroups "int ngroups" "const gid_t *gidset"
41.Sh DESCRIPTION
42The
43.Fn setgroups
44system call
45sets the group access list of the current user process
46according to the array
47.Fa gidset .
48The
49.Fa ngroups
50argument
51indicates the number of entries in the array and must be no
52more than
53.Dv {NGROUPS_MAX}+1 .
54.Pp
55Only the super-user may set a new group list.
56.Pp
57The first entry of the group array
58.Pq Va gidset[0]
59is used as the effective group-ID for the process.
60This entry is over-written when a setgid program is run.
61To avoid losing access to the privileges of the
62.Va gidset[0]
63entry, it should be duplicated later in the group array.
64By convention,
65this happens because the group value indicated
66in the password file also appears in
67.Pa /etc/group .
68The group value in the password file is placed in
69.Va gidset[0]
70and that value then gets added a second time when the
71.Pa /etc/group
72file is scanned to create the group set.
73.Sh RETURN VALUES
74.Rv -std setgroups
75.Sh ERRORS
76The
77.Fn setgroups
78system call will fail if:
79.Bl -tag -width Er
80.It Bq Er EPERM
81The caller is not the super-user.
82.It Bq Er EINVAL
83The number specified in the
84.Fa ngroups
85argument is larger than the
86.Dv {NGROUPS_MAX}+1
87limit.
88.It Bq Er EFAULT
89The address specified for
90.Fa gidset
91is outside the process
92address space.
93.El
94.Sh SEE ALSO
95.Xr getgroups 2 ,
96.Xr initgroups 3
97.Sh HISTORY
98The
99.Fn setgroups
100system call appeared in
101.Bx 4.2 .
102