Comments on: Understanding /etc/group File

By: michal

michal — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 20:13:48 +0000

The ‘x’ means that password is stored in /etc/gshadow, not in /etc/group.. It’s the same way as in /etc/passwd, if you gave x in password field, it means that the user’s password is stored in /etc/shadow.

By: Ricardo

Ricardo — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 03:08:21 +0000

Very good explanation!!

By: paul erickson

paul erickson — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 15:03:49 +0000

Good, but did not mention what the ‘x’ means in the password.

By: eduard

eduard — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 05:04:26 +0000

are there any commands that can show / list all members of a group (using hp-ux)? thanks

By: vahid

vahid — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 00:50:22 +0000

how can i allow the root user of another machine to view the files that are only set to be viewed by the users that are in /etc/group which is set on another machine?
for example can we just add root@host to my nis group so when that machine comes up in initialization access those files and execute them?

By: trusktr

trusktr — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 20:48:28 +0000

But why exactly do some in my group file have and x, or nothing at all in the password field? What’s the purpose?

By: Nethaji Reddy

Nethaji Reddy — Thu, 13 May 2010 09:07:48 +0000

If I add my Group ID or Account name to admin/root in /etc/group, will it work. If not how can I do the same.

By: rahul

rahul — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:08:12 +0000

What is the default permission for /etc/group

By: Pete VargasMas

Pete VargasMas — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:38:02 +0000

Can a group be a member of another group?

By: Vivek Gite

Vivek Gite — Tue, 19 May 2009 13:49:40 +0000

It may cause a problem. It is better to remove a blank line. But I never tested it… YMMV.

By: Ray V

Ray V — Tue, 19 May 2009 11:43:36 +0000

Will a blank line in the /etc/group file cause a system read problem? I know on some UNIX platforms, a blank line in the password file causes problems. Thanx

By: chris

chris — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:05:09 +0000

Great, Thanks!
But one more question remains:
Does /etc/group allow wildcards (probably not) or is it possible to allow all group members of one group to be part of another?
I have the problem, that different linux installations (which are all needed unfortunately) provide different groups and user authentification is central from NIS …

By: miguel rodríguez

miguel rodríguez — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 11:01:46 +0000

perfect!! just what i need ;)

By: null

null — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 04:01:00 +0000

wonderful

By: Chakradana

Chakradana — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:07:28 +0000

Clear and good.

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:49:15 +0000

On the money. The detail was clear and straight forward. I quickly found the answer to the problem that we were facing in our production test environment.