--- name: "groups" section: "7" platform: "freebsd" package: "base" version: "16.0-CURRENT-20261027-61c70dc16a79" release: "FreeBSD 16.0-CURRENT (2026-10-27)" platforms: ["freebsd"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/groups/7" --- # groups(7) standard group names ## NAME **groups** – standard group names ## DESCRIPTION A standard FreeBSD installation has the following user group names: - *wheel* Users authorized to elevate themselves to the super-user privileges of the root user, meaning uid 0. Normally the *wheel* group has gid 0. Users who are not in the group *wheel* are never allowed by [su(1)](/su/1.md) to gain root privileges. - *daemon* Used by the set-group-id programs [lpr(1)](/lpr/1.md) and [rwho(1)](/rwho/1.md). - *kmem* Used by the set-group-id programs (like [ktrdump(8)](/ktrdump/8.md)) that need to access kernel memory (*/dev/mem* and */dev/kmem* are in the group *kmem*). See [mem(4)](/mem/4.md). - *sys* Historic group. Unused in modern FreeBSD. - *tty* Used by the set-group-id programs [wall(1)](/wall/1.md) and [write(1)](/write/1.md) to allow users to send messages to another tty even if they don't own it (static tty device nodes */dev/pts/\** are all in the group *tty*). See [tty(4)](/tty/4.md). - *operator* Users authorized to take backups of disk devices and shut down the machine. The disk device nodes (such as */dev/ada0*) are in the group *operator* and group-readable so users in the group can read from disk devices, for example with [dump(8)](/dump/8.md). The tape device nodes (such as */dev/sa0*) are in the group *operator* and are both group-readable and group-writable so users in the group can write to tape devices. The [shutdown(8)](/shutdown/8.md) program is executable only by root and members of the *operator* group. - *mail* Used by mail agents (like [dma(8)](/dma/8.md)). By default, root mail (*/var/mail/root*) is in the *mail* group. - *bin* Historic group. Unused in modern FreeBSD. - *news* Historic group. Unused in modern FreeBSD. - *man* Historic group; used to be used for managing manual pages (see [man(1)](/man/1.md)). - *games* Used by various set-group-id games to maintain high-scores files and other common files in */var/games*. The members of this group are also allowed to access */dev/input/event\** device nodes (see [hgame(4)](/hgame/4.md)). See also [intro(6)](/intro/6.md). - *ftp* Used to be used by sysinstall(8) (which is now replaced with [bsdinstall(8)](/bsdinstall/8.md)) for setting up anonymous FTP. Unused in modern FreeBSD. - *staff* Staff users, in contrast to guest users (see *guest* group). Not used by FreeBSD; available for the administrator's interpretation. See [security(7)](/security/7.md) for some recommendations on managing accounts in *staff* group. - *sshd* Primary group for the *sshd* pseudo-user used by the [sshd(8)](/sshd/8.md) secure shell daemon. - *smmsp* Primary group for user *smmsp*, which is used by [sendmail(8)](/sendmail/8.md) if no non-root users were configured for running it. The name of the group means "SendMail Message Submission Program". - *mailnull* Used by electronic mail transport agent [sendmail(8)](/sendmail/8.md) as group for its default user *mailnull*. - *guest* Guest users, in contrast to staff users (see *staff* group). Not used by FreeBSD; available for the administrator's interpretation. - *audio* Used to access any device node created by [sound(4)](/sound/4.md), device drivers, and [virtual\_oss(8)](/virtual_oss/8.md). - *video* Used for access to */dev/drm/\** devices, which are used for GPU hardware acceleration. See [drm(7)](/drm/7.md). - *realtime* Used by [mac\_priority(4)](/mac_priority/4.md) to allow members of this group to run threads and processes with realtime scheduling priority. See also [rtprio(1)](/rtprio/1.md). - *idletime* Used by [mac\_priority(4)](/mac_priority/4.md) to allow members of this group to run processes with idle scheduling priority. See also [idprio(1)](/idprio/1.md). - *bind* Used to be used as primary group for the *bind* pseudo-user used by [named(8)](/named/8.md) Internet domain name server, which has been removed from the base system in FreeBSD 10.0. - *unbound* Primary group for the *unbound* pseudo-user used by the [local-unbound(8)](/local-unbound/8.md) recursive DNS resolver. - *proxy* Primary group for the *proxy* pseudo-user used by the [ftp-proxy(8)](/ftp-proxy/8.md) proxy daemon with packet filters such as [pf(4)](/pf/4.md). - *authpf* Used by the set-group-id program [authpf(8)](/authpf/8.md) to configure authenticated gateways. - *\_pflogd* Primary group for the *\_pflogd* pseudo-user used by the [pflogd(8)](/pflogd/8.md) log daemon with the [pf(4)](/pf/4.md) packet filter. - *\_dhcp* Primary group for the *\_dhcp* pseudo-user used by the [dhclient(8)](/dhclient/8.md) DHCP Client. - *dialer* Users authorized to make outgoing modem calls (see [cu(1)](/cu/1.md) and */dev/cuauN* devices). - *network* Historic group. Unused in modern FreeBSD. - *audit* Primary group for the *auditdistd* pseudo-user used by [auditd(8)](/auditd/8.md) and [auditdistd(8)](/auditdistd/8.md) audit daemons. - *www* Historic group for accessing World Wide Web. Unused in modern FreeBSD. - *u2f* Used for users who need to access */dev/u2f/\** devices (see [u2f(4)](/u2f/4.md)). - *ntpd* Primary group for the *ntpd* pseudo-user used by the [ntpd(8)](/ntpd/8.md) network time protocol daemon. - *\_ypldap* Primary group for the *\_ypldap* pseudo-user used by [ypldap(8)](/ypldap/8.md) daemon. - *hast* Primary group for the *hast* pseudo-user used by Highly Available Storage daemon [hastd(8)](/hastd/8.md). - *tests* Primary group for the *tests* pseudo-user used by automatic tests that request to run unprivileged. See [tests(7)](/tests/7.md). - *nogroup* Pseudo-group (fake group). It differs from group *nobody* in way that *nogroup* doesn't have a dedicated user for it. For instance, this group is used for users *tty* and *kmem*. - *nobody* Primary group for the traditional *nobody* pseudo-user. Modern practice is to assign to each different daemon its own separate pseudo-user account and group so that if one daemon is compromised it does not compromise all the other daemons. See also group *nogroup*. ## FILES - */etc/group* Main group permissions file. - */usr/src/etc/group* Group permissions file for the base system. - */usr/ports/GIDs* A list of GIDs (group IDs) reserved for ports (see [ports(7)](/ports/7.md)). See [group(5)](/group/5.md) for the format of abovementioned files. ## SEE ALSO [chgrp(1)](/chgrp/1.md), [groups(1)](/groups/1.md), [id(1)](/id/1.md), [newgrp(1)](/newgrp/1.md), [group(5)](/group/5.md), [pw(8)](/pw/8.md) ## HISTORY The **groups** manual page appeared in NetBSD 10.0 and FreeBSD 15.1.