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System Administration Guide: Basic Administration

Fields in the group File

The fields in the group file are separated by colons and contain the following information: 


group-name:group-password:gid:user-list

For example:


bin::2:root,bin,daemon

The following table describes the group file fields.

Table 4–14 Fields in the group File

Field Name 

Description 

group-name

Contains the name assigned to the group. For example, members of the chemistry department in a university might be called chem. Group names can have a maximum of eight characters.

group-password

Usually contains an asterisk or is empty. The group-password field is a relic of earlier versions of UNIX. If a group has a password, the newgrp command prompts users to enter the password. However, no utility exists to set the password.

gid

Contains the group's GID number. It must be unique on the local system, and should be unique across the entire organization. Each GID number must be a whole number between 0 and 60002. Numbers under 100 are reserved for system default group accounts. User defined groups can range from 100 to 60000. 60001 and 60002 are reserved and assigned to nobody and noaccess, respectively.

user-list

Contains a comma-separated list of user names, representing the user's secondary group memberships. Each user can belong to a maximum of 15 secondary groups. 

Default group file

The default Solaris group file contains the following system groups that support some system-wide task, such as printing, network administration, and electronic mail. Many of these groups having corresponding entries in the passwd file.


root::0:root
other::1:
bin::2:root,bin,daemon
sys::3:root,bin,sys,adm
adm::4:root,adm,daemon
uucp::5:root,uucp
mail::6:root
tty::7:root,adm
lp::8:root,lp,adm
nuucp::9:root,nuucp
staff::10:
daemon::12:root,daemon
smmsp::25:smmsp
sysadmin::14:root
nobody::60001:
noaccess::60002:
nogroup::65534:
Table 4–15 Default group File Entries

Group Name 

Group ID 

Description 

root

0

Superuser group. 

other

1

Optional group. 

bin

2

Administrative group associated with running system binaries. 

sys

3

Administrative group associated with system logging or temporary directories. 

adm

4

Administrative group associated with system logging. 

uucp

5

Group associated with uucp functions.

mail

6

Electronic mail group. 

tty

7

Group associated with tty devices. 

lp

8

Line printer group. 

nuucp

9

Group associated with uucp functions.

staff

10

General administrative group. 

daemon

12

Group associated with routine system tasks. 

sysadmin

14

Administrative group associated with Admintool and Solstice AdminSuite tools. 

smmsp

25 

Sendmail message submission program daemon. 

nobody

60001

Group assigned to users or software processes that do not need nor should have any special permissions. 

noaccess

60002

Group assigned to a user or a process that needs access to a system through some application but without actually logging in. 

nogroup

65534

Group assigned to a user who not a member of a known group.