groupdel.1m (2010 09)

g
groupdel(1M) groupdel(1M)
NAME
groupdel - delete a group from the system
SYNOPSIS
groupdel [-s] group
DESCRIPTION
The
groupdel command deletes a group from the system by removing the appropriate entry from the
/etc/group file.
The
groupdel command must be used with the group argument which is the name of the group to be
deleted. The name consists of a string of printable characters that may not include a colon (
:) or newline
(
\n).
Refer to usergroupname(5) to understand the functionality changes with the Numeric User Group Name
feature.
Options
The
groupadd command uses the following option:
-s Exercise the safe delete feature. That is, if the gid of the primary group of any system
user matches the gid of group , then group is not deleted.
NIS
The
groupdel command is aware of NIS user entries. Only local groups may be deleted with
group-
del
. Attempts to delete an NIS group will result in an error. NIS groups must be administered from the
NIS server. If groupdel is used on a system where NIS is installed, it may fail with the error
group x does not exist
(return value 6), if the group specified is an NIS group (see group (4)).
RETURN VALUE
groupdel exits with one of the following values:
0 No error.
2 Invalid command syntax.
3 Invalid argument supplied to an option.
6 group does not exist.
10 Cannot modify the /etc/group file.
11 /etc/passwd file or
/etc/ptmp file busy. Another command may be modifying the
/etc/passwd file.
12 Unable to open /etc/ptmp or /etc/passwd file is non-existent.
13 group is busy or cannot delete the primary group.
EXAMPLES
Delete the group
project1 from the /etc/group file if it exists:
groupdel project1
WARNINGS
Because many users may try to write the /etc/passwd file simultaneously, a password locking
mechanism was devised. If this locking fails after subsequent retrying, groupdel terminates.
FILES
/etc/group
/etc/ptmp
SEE ALSO
users(1), groupadd(1M), groupmod(1M), logins(1M), useradd(1M), userdel(1M), usermod(1M), group(4),
usergroupname(5).
STANDARDS CONFORMANCE
groupdel: SVID3
HP-UX 11i Version 3: September 2010 − 1 − Hewlett-Packard Company 1