gpasswd command in Linux with examples

gpasswd command is used to administer the /etc/group and /etc/gshadow. As every group in Linux has administrators, members, and a password. It is an inherent security problem as more than one person is permitted to know the password. However, groups can perform co-operation between different users. This command assigns a user to a group with some security criteria. This command is called by a group administrator with a group name only which prompts for the new password of the group. System administrators can use the -A option to define group administrator(s) and -M option to define members. They have all rights of the group administrators and members.

Syntax:

gpasswd [option] group

Options: Here only -A and -M options can be combined.

• -a, –add : This option is used to add a user to the named group.
• -d, –delete : It is used to remove a user from the named group.
• -r, –remove-password : It is used to remove the password from the named group.
• -R, –restrict : This option will restrict the access to the named group.
• -A, –administrators : Set the list of administrative users.
• -M, –members : It set the list of group members.
• -h, –help : It displays the help message and exit.

  $ sudo gpasswd -h 

  

Example: Creating a group and adding a user to it. After that deleting the user.

• Adding a group named as geeks.

  $ sudo groupadd geeks

  

• To display the created group with their id you can use:

  $cat /etc/group

• Now the group geeks is added so now execute command under to add the user to group geeks:

  $ sudo gpasswd -a umang geeks

  

• Deleting the created user from group geeks.

  $ sudo gpasswd -d umang geeks

My Personal Notes arrow_drop_up

Save