HP-UX Reference (11i v2 03/08) - 3 Library Functions A-M (vol 6)

initgroups(3C) initgroups(3C)

NAME

initgroups( ) - initialize group access list

SYNOPSIS

#include <unistd.h>

int initgroups(const char *name, gid_t basegid);

DESCRIPTION

initgroups() reads the login group ﬁle, /etc/logingroup

, and sets up the group access list for

the user speciﬁed by name, using the setgroups (2) system call. If the value of basegid is zero or positive,

it is automatically included in the groups list. Typically this value is given as the group number from the

password ﬁle. If the login group ﬁle is empty, basegid is the only member of the list.

RETURN VALUE

initgroups() returns -1 if it was not invoked by a user with appropriate privileges.

WARNINGS

initgroups() uses the routines based on getgrent (3C). If the invoking program uses any of these rou-

tines, the group structure is overwritten by the call to

initgroups(). Subsequent calls to init-

groups() with the same name parameter override the actions of previous calls.

On many systems, no one seems to keep

/etc/logingroup

up to date.

initgroups() uses the Dynamic Name Service Switch. (See nsswitch.conf(4).) An application that

uses this interface cannot be fully archive bound.

NETWORKING FEATURES

NFS

If /etc/logingroup is linked to

/etc/group, initgroups() tries to use the Network Informa-

tion Service

(NIS) for entries beginning with a plus sign (+). If group membership for name is managed by

NIS, and no NIS server is able to respond, a call to initgroups() does not return until a server does

respond. This causes commands such as login(1) and su(1) to wait indeﬁnitely.

See group(4) for proper syntax and operation.

AUTHOR

initgroups() was developed by the University of California, Berkeley.

FILES

/etc/logingroup login group ﬁle