GROUPDEL(8)		  System Management Commands		   GROUPDEL(8)



NAME
       groupdel - delete a group

SYNOPSIS
       groupdel group

DESCRIPTION
       The groupdel command modifies the system account files, deleting all
       entries that refer to group. The named group must exist.

CAVEATS
       You may not remove the primary group of any existing user. You must
       remove the user before you remove the group.

       You should manually check all file systems to ensure that no files
       remain owned by this group.

CONFIGURATION
       The following configuration variables in /etc/login.defs change the
       behavior of this tool:

       MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP (number)
	   Maximum members per group entry. When the maximum is reached, a new
	   group entry (line) is started in /etc/group (with the same name,
	   same password, and same GID).

	   The default value is 0, meaning that there are no limits in the
	   number of members in a group.

	   This feature (split group) permits to limit the length of lines in
	   the group file. This is useful to make sure that lines for NIS
	   groups are not larger than 1024 characters.

	   If you need to enforce such limit, you can use 25.

	   Note: split groups may not be supported by all tools (even in the
	   Shadow toolsuite). You should not use this variable unless you
	   really need it.

FILES
       /etc/group
	   Group account information.

       /etc/gshadow
	   Secure group account information.

EXIT VALUES
       The groupdel command exits with the following values:

       0
	   success

       2
	   invalid command syntax

       6
	   specified group doesn't exist

       8
	   can't remove user's primary group

       10
	   can't update group file

SEE ALSO
       chfn(1), chsh(1), passwd(1), gpasswd(8), groupadd(8), groupmod(8),
       useradd(8), userdel(8), usermod(8)



System Management Commands	  07/24/2009			   GROUPDEL(8)