groupadd 8 System Management Commands groupadd create a new group groupadd -g GID -o -f -K KEY=VALUE group The groupadd command creates a new group account using the values specified on the command line plus the default values from the system. The new group will be entered into the system files as needed. The options which apply to the groupadd command are: -f This option causes the command to simply exit with success status if the specified group already exists. When used with -g, and the specified GID already exists, another (unique) GID is chosen (i.e. -g is turned off). -g GID The numerical value of the group's ID. This value must be unique, unless the -o option is used. The value must be non-negative. The default is to use the smallest ID value greater than 999 and greater than every other group. Values between 0 and 999 are typically reserved for system accounts. -h, --help Display help message and exit. -K KEY=VALUE Overrides /etc/login.defs defaults (GID_MIN, GID_MAX and others). Multiple -K options can be specified. Example: -K GID_MIN=100 -K GID_MAX=499 Note: -K GID_MIN=10,GID_MAX=499 doesn't work yet. -o This option permits to add a group with a non-unique GID. /etc/group Group account information. /etc/gshadow Secure group account information. /etc/login.defs Shadow password suite configuration. Groupnames must begin with a lower case letter or an underscore, and only lower case letters, underscores, dashes, and dollar signs may follow. In regular expression terms: [a-z_][a-z0-9_-]*[$] Groupnames may only be up to 16 characters long. You may not add a NIS or LDAP group. This must be performed on the corresponding server. If the groupname already exists in an external group database such as NIS or LDAP, groupadd will deny the group creation request. The groupadd command exits with the following values: 0 success 2 invalid command syntax 3 invalid argument to option 4 GID not unique (when -o not used) 9 group name not unique 10 can't update group file chfn1 , chsh1 , passwd1 , gpasswd8 , groupdel8 , groupmod8 , login.defs5 , useradd8 , userdel8 , usermod8 .