Very Computer

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Date:	Wed, 13 Jan 1999 11:18:43 -0600
Local:	Wed, Jan 13 1999 12:18 pm
Subject:	group names

Hi,

Is there a command(or combination of) that I could use to find out the
number of  groups and their names that exist on the machine??

Thanks in advance

Nanda

Maybe.  It would be necessary to scan the /etc/passwd file
(and possibly niscat or ypcat passwd) to gather group ID
numbers.  These numbers can be looked up in /etc/group, but
I am not aware of any requirement that a group ID necessarily
has to be listed there or in any naming service in order to
be valid.  In other words: a group ID does not necessarily
have to be named.

--
                Fletcher Glenn

Number of groups: wc -l /etc/group

Their names: cut -d: -f1 /etc/group

If you use NIS, you should pipe "ypcat group" to the wc and cut commands.

--

GTE Internetworking, Powered by BBN, Burlington, MA
*** DON'T SEND TECHNICAL QUESTIONS DIRECTLY TO ME, post them to newsgroups.
Don't bother cc'ing followups to me.

On systems that do not use NIS or any of its incarnations, the
command is cat (use cat /etc/group). On NIS*.* systems, use
"ypcat group".

--

--
Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, and only myself ... really.

Quote:>>Is there a command(or combination of) that I could use to find out the
>>number of  groups and their names that exist on the machine??

>Number of groups: wc -l /etc/group

>Their names: cut -d: -f1 /etc/group

Note that due to limitations on the number of characters in a single line
in /etc/group (or its NIS equivalent) you may have been forced to split
 these into several entries with the same GID. Ie, instead of

group:*:100:lots,and,lots,of,usernames  (typically > 1K characters)

in some circumstances you have to use:

group:*:100:lots,and,lots
group1:*:100:of,usernames

which will work fine, but if you really want an exact answer to the number
of groups on your system you have to take into account identical GIDs in the
group file/NIS map.

--
Knut Borge, Center for Information Technology Services