Who, and with Whom?
Charly's Column – User Groups
This time Charly investigates the three most frequently asked questions about user groups.
Most people know that every user on a Linux system is also a member of at least one user group. Today we want to look into the three most frequently asked questions about groups: Which groups exist, how many members does a group have and who are those members, and to what groups does a specific user belong?
First off, let's find out which groups exist on our system. There are several ways to do this. One of them is to use the groups command without further parameters; another one is provided by compgen -g. The getent group (Listing 1, line 1) and cat /etc/group commands also return the same result, with some additional information, including the group password. There is usually an x here, which means that /etc/gshadow takes care of that. This is followed by the numeric group ID and a comma-separated list of members.
The next thing is to find out which members belong to a group. In principle, we have already done this, because the getent group and cat /etc/group commands provide this information as well.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Bottlenecks Discovered by Meta Engineers Lead to Scalability Improvements
Thanks to a small group of engineers at Meta, the Linux kernel module kernfs has been improved, which has led to some serious gains.
-
PwnEscape Poses VM Vulnerability
A guest-to-host escape flaw in Linux KVM, named PwnEscape, might be yet another means of attacking Linux.
-
Linux Mint 27 Set for a Christmas Release
The developers behind Linux Mint have announced a Christmas release, and it looks like Santa's sack will be brimming with features.
-
Is Linus Torvalds Vibe Coding?
The creator of Linux has added AI into his process for Linux kernel development, and it's more than just for debugging.
-
openKylin 3.0 Released with Expanded AI Integration
The latest release features a pre-installed AI agent to help perform tasks.
-
DigitalOcean Ends Open Source Credits Program
In a change that has surprised many open source developers, DigitalOcean has decided to sunset its Open Source Credits Program.
-
Office 365 Available for Testing on Linux via Bottles
Linux users can now test the official Office 365, thanks to Mirko Brombin's work on Bottles.
-
Dutch Government Turns to Open Source for Digital Sovereignty
Following in the footsteps of other European countries, the Netherlands is looking to increase its sovereign digital infrastructure with open source software.
-
Linux May Soon Work on Snapdragon X2-Based PCs
If you're thinking about buying a Snapdragon X2-based desktop or laptop, Linux may soon be an option.
-
KDE for People Initiative Calls for AI Ban in Plasma
A new community of KDE wants the project to adopt a strict no-AI policy for KDE Plasma.