GROUPDEL(8)
NAME
groupdel - delete a group
SYNOPSIS
groupdel group
DESCRIPTION
The groupdel command modifies the system account files, deleting all
entries that refer to group. The named group must exist.
CAVEATS
You may not remove the primary group of any existing user. You must
remove the user before you remove the group.
You should manually check all file systems to ensure that no files
remain owned by this group.
CONFIGURATION
The following configuration variables in /etc/login.defs change the
behavior of this tool:
- 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.
FILES
- /etc/group
- Group account information.
- /etc/gshadow
- Secure group account information.
EXIT VALUES
The groupdel command exits with the following values:
- 0
- success
- 2
- invalid command syntax
- 6
- specified group doesn't exist
- 8
- can't remove user's primary group
- 10
- can't update group file