GROUPDEL(8)                                        System Management Commands                                        GROUPDEL(8)



NAME
       groupdel - delete a group

SYNOPSIS
       groupdel group

DESCRIPTION
       The groupdel command modifies the system account files, deleting all entries that refer to group. The named group must
       exist.

CAVEATS
       You may not remove the primary group of any existing user. You must remove the user before you remove the group.

       You should manually check all file systems to ensure that no files remain owned by this group.

CONFIGURATION
       The following configuration variables in /etc/login.defs change the behavior of this tool:

       MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP (number)
           Maximum members per group entry. When the maximum is reached, a new group entry (line) is started in /etc/group (with
           the same name, same password, and same GID).

           The default value is 0, meaning that there are no limits in the number of members in a group.

           This feature (split group) permits to limit the length of lines in the group file. This is useful to make sure that
           lines for NIS groups are not larger than 1024 characters.

           If you need to enforce such limit, you can use 25.

           Note: split groups may not be supported by all tools (even in the Shadow toolsuite). You should not use this variable
           unless you really need it.

FILES
       /etc/group
           Group account information.

       /etc/gshadow
           Secure group account information.

EXIT VALUES
       The groupdel command exits with the following values:

       0
           success

       2
           invalid command syntax

       6
           specified group doesn't exist

       8
           can't remove user's primary group

       10
           can't update group file

SEE ALSO
       chfn(1), chsh(1), passwd(1), gpasswd(8), groupadd(8), groupmod(8), useradd(8), userdel(8), usermod(8)



System Management Commands                                 07/24/2009                                                GROUPDEL(8)