GROUPADD(8)
NAME
groupadd - create a new group
SYNOPSIS
groupadd [options] group
DESCRIPTION
The groupadd command creates a new group account using the values
specified on the command line plus the default values from the system.
The new group will be entered into the system files as needed.
OPTIONS
The options which apply to the groupadd command 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. -g is turned off). - -g, --gid GID
- The numerical value of the group's ID. This value must be unique,
unless the -o option is used. The value must be non-negative. The default is to use the smallest ID value greater than 999 and
greater than every other group. Values between 0 and 999 are
typically reserved for system accounts. - -h, --help
- Display help message and exit.
- -K, --key KEY=VALUE
- Overrides /etc/login.defs defaults (GID_MIN, GID_MAX and others).
Multiple -K options can be specified. - Example: -K GID_MIN=100 -K GID_MAX=499
- Note: -K GID_MIN=10,GID_MAX=499 doesn'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 by crypt(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 the
SYS_GID_MIN-SYS_GID_MAX range, defined in login.defs, instead of GID_MIN-GID_MAX.
CONFIGURATION
The following configuration variables in /etc/login.defs change the
behavior of this tool:
- GID_MAX (number), GID_MIN (number)
- Range of group IDs used for the creation of regular groups by
useradd, groupadd, or newusers. - 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 by
useradd, groupadd, or newusers.
FILES
- /etc/group
- Group account information.
- /etc/gshadow
- Secure group account information.
- /etc/login.defs
- Shadow password suite configuration.
CAVEATS
It is usually recommended to only use groupnames that begin 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_-]*[$]?
On Debian, the only constraints are that groupnames must neither start
with a dash ('-') nor contain a colon (':') or a whitespace (space:' ',
end of line: '\n', tabulation: '\t', etc.).
Groupnames may only be up to 32 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, groupadd will deny the group creation request.
EXIT VALUES
The groupadd command exits with the following values:
- 0
- success
- 2
- invalid command syntax
- 3
- invalid argument to option
- 4
- GID not unique (when -o not used)
- 9
- group name not unique
- 10
- can't update group file