delgroup

delgroup [options] groupdelgroup [options] user group

delgroup removes a group from the system or removes a user from a group. It's the Debian/Ubuntu counterpart to groupdel with additional safety features.When called with just a group name, it deletes the group. With both user and group names, it removes the user from that group without deleting the group.

--system

Only act if the target is a system group (fail otherwise). Also affects creation logic in adduser.

Only remove the group if it has no members.

Back up any files deleted (for use with deluser; kept for symmetry).

Place backups in dir instead of the current directory.

(deluser) remove the user's home directory. Listed here only for reference.

Force removal of a group even when a user name was given. Avoids ambiguous invocations.

Suppress informational messages.

More verbose progress output.

Use an alternate `deluser.conf` configuration file.

Display help information.

Display version.

/etc/deluser.conf

Controls default behavior for deluser and delgroup operations.

Requires root privileges. Cannot delete a user's primary group while user exists. Files owned by deleted group keep numeric GID. Debian/Ubuntu specific command.

delgroup is part of the adduser package, created for Debian Linux to provide friendlier user/group management than the low-level commands. It wraps groupdel and gpasswd with additional checks and configuration options.

groupdel(1), deluser(1), addgroup(1), gpasswd(1)