1.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1991, 1993 2.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" %sccs.include.redist.roff% 5.\" 6.\" @(#)group.5 8.3 (Berkeley) 04/19/94 7.\" 8.Dd 9.Dt GROUP 5 10.Os 11.Sh NAME 12.Nm group 13.Nd format of the group permissions file 14.Sh DESCRIPTION 15The file 16.Aq Pa /etc/group 17consists of newline separated 18.Tn ASCII 19records, one per group, containing four colon 20.Ql \&: 21separated fields. These fields are as follows: 22.Bl -tag -width password -offset indent -compact 23.It group 24Name of the group. 25.It passwd 26Group's 27.Em encrypted 28password. 29.It gid 30The group's decimal ID. 31.It member 32Group members. 33.El 34.Pp 35The 36.Ar group 37field is the group name used for granting file access to users 38who are members of the group. 39The 40.Ar gid 41field is the number associated with the group name. 42They should both be unique across the system (and often 43across a group of systems) since they control file access. 44The 45.Ar passwd 46field 47is an optional 48.Em encrypted 49password. 50This field is rarely used 51and an asterisk is normally placed in it rather than leaving it blank. 52The 53.Ar member 54field contains the names of users granted the privileges of 55.Ar group . 56The member names are separated by commas without spaces or newlines. 57A user is automatically in a group if that group was specified 58in their 59.Pa /etc/passwd 60entry and does not need to be added to that group in the 61.Pa /etc/group file. 62.\" .Pp 63.\" When the system reads the file 64.\" .Pa /etc/group 65.\" the fields are read into the structure 66.\" .Fa group 67.\" declared in 68.\" .Aq Pa grp.h : 69.\" .Bd -literal -offset indent 70.\" struct group { 71.\" char *gr_name; /* group name */ 72.\" char *gr_passwd; /* group password */ 73.\" int gr_gid; /* group id */ 74.\" char **gr_mem; /* group members */ 75.\" }; 76.\" .Ed 77.Sh FILES 78.Bl -tag -width /etc/group -compact 79.It Pa /etc/group 80.El 81.Sh SEE ALSO 82.Xr setgroups 2 , 83.Xr initgroups 3 , 84.Xr crypt 3 , 85.Xr passwd 1 , 86.Xr passwd 5 87.Sh BUGS 88The 89.Xr passwd 1 90command does not change the 91.Nm group 92passwords. 93.Sh HISTORY 94A 95.Nm 96file format appeared in 97.At v6 . 98