NAME
newgrp —
change to a new primary
group
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
The
newgrp command changes a user to a new primary group (real
and effective group ID) by starting a new shell. The user remains logged in
and the current directory and file creation mask remain unchanged. The user is
always given a new shell even if the primary group change fails.
The
newgrp command accepts the following options:
-
-
- -l
- The environment is changed to what would be expected if the
user actually logged in again. This simulates a full login.
The
group is a group name or non-negative numeric group ID
from the group database. The real and effective group IDs are set to
group or the group ID associated with the group name.
If
group is not specified,
newgrp
restores the user's real and effective group IDs to the user's primary group
specified in the password database. The user's supplementary group IDs are
restored to the set specified for the user in the group database.
If the user is not a member of the specified group, and the group requires a
password, the user will be prompted for the group password.
FILES
- /etc/group
- The group database
- /etc/master.passwd
- The user database
- /etc/passwd
- A Version 7 format password file
EXIT STATUS
If a new shell is started the exit status is the exit status of the shell.
Otherwise the exit status will be >0.
SEE ALSO
csh(1),
groups(1),
login(1),
sh(1),
su(1),
umask(2),
group(5),
passwd(5),
environ(7)
STANDARDS
The
newgrp command conforms to
IEEE Std
1003.1-2001 (“POSIX.1”).
HISTORY
A
newgrp command appeared in
Version 6
AT&T UNIX. A
newgrp command appeared in
NetBSD 5.0.
BUGS
There is no convenient way to enter a password into
/etc/group. The use of group passwords is strongly
discouraged since they are inherently insecure. It is not possible to stop
users from obtaining the encrypted password from the group database.