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33 .Nd format of the group permissions file
37 file is the local source of group information.
38 It can be used in conjunction with the Hesiod domain
39 `group', and the NIS maps `group.byname' and `group.bygid',
45 consists of newline separated
47 records, one per group, containing four colon
50 These fields are as follows:
51 .Bl -tag -width password -offset indent -compact
59 The group's decimal ID.
64 Lines whose first non-whitespace character is a pound-sign (#)
65 are comments, and are ignored.
66 Blank lines that consist
67 only of spaces, tabs or newlines are also ignored.
71 field is the group name used for granting file access to users
72 who are members of the group.
75 field is the number associated with the group name.
76 They should both be unique across the system (and often
77 across a group of systems) since they control file access.
84 This field is rarely used
85 and an asterisk is normally placed in it rather than leaving it blank.
88 field contains the names of users granted the privileges of
90 The member names are separated by commas without spaces or newlines.
91 A user is automatically in a group if that group was specified
94 entry and does not need to be added to that group in the
98 .\" When the system reads the file
100 .\" the fields are read into the structure
104 .\" .Bd -literal -offset indent
106 .\" char *gr_name; /* group name */
107 .\" char *gr_passwd; /* group password */
108 .\" int gr_gid; /* group id */
109 .\" char **gr_mem; /* group members */
112 .Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
115 command does not change the
122 command should be used instead.
124 There are various limitations which are explained in
125 the function where they occur; see section
128 In older implementations,
129 a group cannot have more than 200 members.
130 The maximum line length of
133 Longer lines will be skipped.
134 This limitation disappeared in
136 Older binaries that are statically linked, depend on old
139 binaries in compatibility mode
140 may still have this limit.
142 .Bl -tag -width /etc/group -compact
152 .Xr nsswitch.conf 5 ,
160 file format appeared in
162 Support for comments first appeared in