---
name: "group"
section: "5"
platform: "freebsd"
package: "base"
version: "16.0-CURRENT-20261027-61c70dc16a79"
release: "FreeBSD 16.0-CURRENT (2026-10-27)"
platforms: ["linux", "freebsd", "openbsd", "macos"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/group/5"
---

# group(5)

format of the group permissions file

## NAME

**group** – format of the group permissions file

## DESCRIPTION

The **group** file is the local source of group information. It can be used in conjunction with the Hesiod domain \`group', and the NIS maps \`group.byname' and \`group.bygid', as controlled by [nsswitch.conf(5)](/nsswitch.conf/5.md).

The file **group** consists of newline separated ASCII records, one per group, containing four colon ‘:’ separated fields. These fields are as follows:

- group

  Name of the group.

- passwd

  Group's *encrypted* password.

- gid

  The group's decimal ID.

- member

  Group members.

Lines whose first non-whitespace character is a pound-sign (#) are comments, and are ignored. Blank lines that consist only of spaces, tabs or newlines are also ignored.

The *group* field is the group name used for granting file access to users who are members of the group. The *gid* field is the number associated with the group name. They should both be unique across the system (and often across a group of systems) since they control file access. The *passwd* field is an optional *encrypted* password. This field is rarely used and an asterisk is normally placed in it rather than leaving it blank. The *member* field contains the names of users granted the privileges of *group*. The member names are separated by commas without spaces or newlines. A user is automatically in a group if that group was specified in their */etc/passwd* entry and does not need to be added to that group in the **group** file.

## IMPLEMENTATION NOTES

The [passwd(1)](/passwd/1.md) command does not change the **group** passwords. The [pw(8)](/pw/8.md) utility's **groupmod** command should be used instead.

## LIMITS

There are various limitations which are explained in the function where they occur; see section SEE ALSO.

In older implementations, a group cannot have more than 200 members. The maximum line length of */etc/group* is 1024 characters. Longer lines will be skipped. This limitation disappeared in FreeBSD 3.0. Older binaries that are statically linked, depend on old shared libraries, or non-FreeBSD binaries in compatibility mode may still have this limit.

## FILES

- */etc/group*

  ## SEE ALSO

[newgrp(1)](/newgrp/1.md), [passwd(1)](/passwd/1.md), [setcred(2)](/setcred/2.md), [setgroups(2)](/setgroups/2.md), [crypt(3)](/crypt/3.md), [getgrent(3)](/getgrent/3.md), [initgroups(3)](/initgroups/3.md), [nsswitch.conf(5)](/nsswitch.conf/5.md), [passwd(5)](/passwd/5.md), [groups(7)](/groups/7.md), [chkgrp(8)](/chkgrp/8.md), [pw(8)](/pw/8.md), [yp(8)](/yp/8.md)

## HISTORY

A **group** file format appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX. Support for comments first appeared in FreeBSD 3.0.