groupadd - Create a new group

The groupadd command creates a new group account using the values specified on the command line and the default values from the system. The new group will be entered into the system files as needed.

The options which apply to the groupadd command are:

-f

This option causes to just exit with success status if the specified group already exists. With -g, if specified gid already exists, other (unique) gid is chosen (i.e. -g is turned off).

-g 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=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

This option permits to add group with non-unique GID.

/etc/group

group account information

/etc/gshadow

secure group account information

/etc/login.defs

shadow password suite configuration

Groupnames must begin with a lower case letter or an underscore, and only lower case letters, underscores, dashes, and dollar signs may follow. In regular expression terms: [a-z_][a-z0-9_-]*[$]

Groupnames may only be up to 16 characters long.

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

chfn(1), chsh(1), passwd(1), gpasswd(8), groupdel(8), groupmod(8), login.defs(5), useradd(8), userdel(8), usermod(8).

Julianne Frances Haugh (jockgrrl@ix.netcom.com)