Group is a
name service
In computing, a directory service or name service maps the names of network resources to their respective network addresses. It is a shared information infrastructure for locating, managing, administering and organizing everyday items and network ...
database used to store group information on
Unix-like operating systems. The sources for the group database (and hence the sources for groups on a system) are configured, like other
name service
In computing, a directory service or name service maps the names of network resources to their respective network addresses. It is a shared information infrastructure for locating, managing, administering and organizing everyday items and network ...
databases, in
nsswitch.conf
The Name Service Switch (NSS) connects the computer with a variety of sources of common configuration databases and name resolution mechanisms. These sources include local operating system files (such as , , and ), the Domain Name System (DNS), th ...
.
Seeing available groups on a Unix system
The contents of the group database (and available groups) can be seen with a variety of tools:
Command line
The
getent
getent is a Unix command that helps a user get entries in a number of important text files called databases. This includes the passwd and group databases which store user information – hence is a common way to look up user details on Unix. Sin ...
command can be used to fetch group information.
Fetching a list of all available groups
getent group
Fetching a specific group
For a specific group called 'users':
getent group users
Python
grp - The Group Database— a
Python module
Unix authentication-related software
{{unix-stub