You can display groups for a different user by specifying the username: groups other_userĪnother method to display the groups a user belongs to, including user ID (uid) and group ID (gid), is to use the id command: id user_name Other Common Groups The image above shows the groups that the logged-in user ‘sofija’ belongs to. To remove a user from a group: sudo gpasswd –d user_name new_group The gpasswd tool is used for managing groups. (Upper-case –G refers to a secondary group.) A user can only have one primary group, so the old primary group user_name won’t be primary anymore for this user. The lower-case –g specifies the primary group. To change a users primary group, enter the command: sudo usermod –g new_group user_name In most cases, a user’s primary group is the same as their username. Next, assign a password to the new user: sudo passwd new_user Change a Users Primary GroupĪll previous commands have been used to manage the secondary groups a user belongs to. Enter the following: sudo useradd –G new_group new_user This is useful for creating a new user on the fly for a specific software application. Use the usermod command to specify multiple groups to add to: sudo usermod –a –G new_group,new_group2,new_group3 user_name Create a User and Add to Group Without using –append, the user could be dropped from other groups. The usermod command uses the –append and –group options to append the user to a particular group. You can also use the usermod command to add a user to a group: sudo usermod –a –G group_name user_name Use the useradd command to add a user: sudo useradd –G new_group user_name Replace new_group with the name you want for your new group. To create a new group, enter the following: sudo groupadd new_group Members of the group inherit the read, write, and execute privileges for that group. Secondary groups are created to manage individual files and software applications. Secondary GroupsĪ user can belong to any number of secondary groups (including none). A primary group with the same name as the user is created, and any files created by the user are included in that group. A user can only belong to one primary group at a time. Any files the user creates are automatically added to that group. The primary group is set to the logged-in user. Instead of managing permissions for each user account, you can simply add a user to a group to grant the appropriate permissions. Groups let you create categories of users with pre-set permissions. Some users might need the ability to execute applications, while others are restricted from accessing specific files and folders. In Linux, different users have different roles or responsibilities. Access to a terminal window/command line (Ctrl-Alt-T, Ctrl-Alt-F2).A user account with sudo or root privileges.

How to add a user account in usps