groupadd

Create a new system group

TLDR

Create a new group

$ sudo groupadd group_name

Create a system group

$ sudo groupadd -r group_name

Create group with specific group ID

$ sudo groupadd -g 1001 group_name

Create group with initial members

$ sudo groupadd -U user1,user2 group_name

groupadd creates a new group account on the system. It records the new group information in system files (/etc/group and /etc/gshadow), assigning a unique GID unless specified.System groups (created with -r) use GIDs from the system range defined in /etc/login.defs, typically below 1000.

PARAMETERS

-f, --force

Exit successfully if group exists; use next available GID if specified one is taken

-g, --gid GID

Set numerical group ID (must be unique unless -o used)

-K, --key KEY=VALUE

Override /etc/login.defs defaults

-o, --non-unique

Allow creation with duplicate GID

-p, --password PASSWORD

Set encrypted group password

-r, --system

Create a system group

-U, --users USER1,USER2

Add users as group members

-R, --root CHROOT_DIR

Apply changes in chroot environment

-P, --prefix PREFIX_DIR

Apply changes in prefix directory

-h, --help

Display help message and exit

INSTALL

sudo apt install passwd

sudo pacman -S shadow

sudo apk add shadow

sudo zypper install shadow

nix profile install nixpkgs#shadow

CAVEATS

Group names must be 32 characters maximum and cannot start with dash, plus, or tilde. Names cannot contain colons, commas, whitespace, or be entirely numeric.

HISTORY

groupadd is part of the shadow-utils package for managing group accounts on Unix-like systems.