git: e09104dfb76a - main - groups.7: New manual page of standard group names
- Go to: [ bottom of page ] [ top of archives ] [ this month ]
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 2026 13:54:05 UTC
The branch main has been updated by ziaee:
URL: https://cgit.FreeBSD.org/src/commit/?id=e09104dfb76a36b65a64bd315bd1520941c4beed
commit e09104dfb76a36b65a64bd315bd1520941c4beed
Author: Artem Bunichev <tembun@bk.ru>
AuthorDate: 2026-04-28 13:48:52 +0000
Commit: Alexander Ziaee <ziaee@FreeBSD.org>
CommitDate: 2026-04-28 13:53:39 +0000
groups.7: New manual page of standard group names
Import groups(7) from NetBSD, with tweaks for our system. The group
list is sorted by GID. All the group names from /usr/src/etc/group
are described, except "uucp". The FILES section was added on top of
the original manual page.
PR: 264966
Relnotes: yes
MFC after: 3 days
Obtained from: NetBSD
Reviewed by: des, ziaee
Differential Revision: https://reviews.freebsd.org/D54114
---
share/man/man5/group.5 | 3 +-
share/man/man5/passwd.5 | 3 +-
share/man/man7/Makefile | 2 +
share/man/man7/groups.7 | 345 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
usr.bin/id/groups.1 | 5 +-
usr.bin/id/id.1 | 5 +-
usr.bin/newgrp/newgrp.1 | 5 +-
usr.sbin/adduser/adduser.8 | 3 +-
usr.sbin/chkgrp/chkgrp.8 | 5 +-
usr.sbin/chown/chgrp.1 | 3 +-
usr.sbin/chown/chown.8 | 3 +-
usr.sbin/pw/pw.8 | 3 +-
12 files changed, 371 insertions(+), 14 deletions(-)
diff --git a/share/man/man5/group.5 b/share/man/man5/group.5
index 8f7c59c59d52..ba26a7114ac0 100644
--- a/share/man/man5/group.5
+++ b/share/man/man5/group.5
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
-.Dd August 29, 2025
+.Dd April 19, 2026
.Dt GROUP 5
.Os
.Sh NAME
@@ -152,6 +152,7 @@ may still have this limit.
.Xr initgroups 3 ,
.Xr nsswitch.conf 5 ,
.Xr passwd 5 ,
+.Xr groups 7 ,
.Xr chkgrp 8 ,
.Xr pw 8 ,
.Xr yp 8
diff --git a/share/man/man5/passwd.5 b/share/man/man5/passwd.5
index b1d9e362492c..56dbabfe901e 100644
--- a/share/man/man5/passwd.5
+++ b/share/man/man5/passwd.5
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
-.Dd May 16, 2023
+.Dd April 19, 2026
.Dt PASSWD 5
.Os
.Sh NAME
@@ -425,6 +425,7 @@ BEGIN { FS = ":"}
.Xr login.conf 5 ,
.Xr netgroup 5 ,
.Xr nsswitch.conf 5 ,
+.Xr groups 7 ,
.Xr adduser 8 ,
.Xr nologin 8 ,
.Xr pw 8 ,
diff --git a/share/man/man7/Makefile b/share/man/man7/Makefile
index 6a426cc29b15..6fd32da900e1 100644
--- a/share/man/man7/Makefile
+++ b/share/man/man7/Makefile
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ MAN= arch.7 \
development.7 \
environ.7 \
firewall.7 \
+ groups.7 \
growfs.7 \
hier.7 \
hostname.7 \
@@ -50,6 +51,7 @@ MLINKS+= c.7 c11.7
MLINKS+= c.7 c17.7
MLINKS+= c.7 c23.7
MLINKS+= c.7 c2y.7
+MLINKS+= groups.7 wheel.7
.if ${MK_INET} != "no"
MAN+= networking.7
diff --git a/share/man/man7/groups.7 b/share/man/man7/groups.7
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..822717d68983
--- /dev/null
+++ b/share/man/man7/groups.7
@@ -0,0 +1,345 @@
+.\" $NetBSD: groups.7,v 1.8 2020/04/02 20:57:20 roy Exp $
+.\"
+.\" SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-2-Clause
+.\"
+.\" Copyright (c) 2020 The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.
+.\" All rights reserved.
+.\"
+.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
+.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
+.\" are met:
+.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
+.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
+.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
+.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
+.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
+.\"
+.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE NETBSD FOUNDATION, INC. AND CONTRIBUTORS
+.\" ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED
+.\" TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
+.\" PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE FOUNDATION OR CONTRIBUTORS
+.\" BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR
+.\" CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF
+.\" SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS
+.\" INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN
+.\" CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE)
+.\" ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
+.\" POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
+.\"
+.Dd April 19, 2026
+.Dt GROUPS 7
+.Os
+.Sh NAME
+.Nm groups
+.Nd standard group names
+.Sh DESCRIPTION
+A standard
+.Fx
+installation has the following user group names:
+.Bl -tag -width "realtime"
+.It Em wheel
+Users authorized to elevate themselves to the super-user privileges of
+the root user, meaning uid\~0.
+Normally the
+.Em wheel
+group has gid\~0.
+.Pp
+Users who are not in the group
+.Em wheel
+are never allowed by
+.Xr su 1
+to gain root privileges.
+.It Em daemon
+Used by the set-group-id programs
+.Xr lpr 1
+and
+.Xr rwho 1 .
+.It Em kmem
+Used by the set-group-id programs (like
+.Xr ktrdump 8 )
+that need to access kernel memory
+.Po Pa /dev/mem
+and
+.Pa /dev/kmem
+are in the group
+.Em kmem
+.Pc .
+See
+.Xr mem 4 .
+.It Em sys
+Historic group.
+Unused in modern
+.Fx .
+.It Em tty
+Used by the set-group-id programs
+.Xr wall 1
+and
+.Xr write 1
+to allow users to send messages to another tty even if they don't own
+it (static tty device nodes
+.Pa /dev/pts/*
+are all in the group
+.Em tty ) .
+See
+.Xr tty 4 .
+.It Em operator
+Users authorized to take backups of disk devices and shut down the
+machine.
+.Pp
+The disk device nodes
+(such as
+.Pa /dev/ada0 )
+are in the group
+.Em operator
+and group-readable so users in the group can read from disk devices,
+for example with
+.Xr dump 8 .
+The tape device nodes
+(such as
+.Pa /dev/sa0 )
+are in the group
+.Em operator
+and are both group-readable and group-writable so users in the group
+can write to tape devices.
+.Pp
+The
+.Xr shutdown 8
+program is executable only by root and members of the
+.Em operator
+group.
+.It Em mail
+Used by mail agents (like
+.Xr dma 8 ) .
+.Pp
+By default, root mail
+.Pq Pa /var/mail/root
+is in the
+.Em mail
+group.
+.It Em bin
+Historic group.
+Unused in modern
+.Fx .
+.It Em news
+Historic group.
+Unused in modern
+.Fx .
+.It Em man
+Historic group; used to be used for managing manual pages (see
+.Xr man 1 ) .
+.It Em games
+Used by various set-group-id games to maintain high-scores files
+and other common files in
+.Pa /var/games .
+The members of this group are also allowed to access
+.Pa /dev/input/event*
+device nodes (see
+.Xr hgame 4 ) .
+See also
+.Xr intro 6 .
+.It Em ftp
+Used to be used by
+.Xr sysinstall 8
+(which is now replaced with
+.Xr bsdinstall 8 )
+for setting up anonymous FTP.
+Unused in modern
+.Fx .
+.It Em staff
+Staff users, in contrast to guest users (see
+.Em guest
+group).
+Not used by
+.Fx ;
+available for the administrator's interpretation.
+See
+.Xr security 7
+for some recommendations on managing accounts in
+.Em staff
+group.
+.It Em sshd
+Primary group for the
+.Em sshd
+pseudo-user used by the
+.Xr sshd 8
+secure shell daemon.
+.It Em smmsp
+Primary group for user
+.Em smmsp ,
+which is used by
+.Xr sendmail 8
+if no non-root users were configured for running it.
+.Pp
+The name of the group means "SendMail Message Submission Program".
+.It Em mailnull
+Used by electronic mail transport agent
+.Xr sendmail 8
+as group for its default user
+.Em mailnull .
+.It Em guest
+Guest users, in contrast to staff users (see
+.Em staff
+group).
+Not used by
+.Fx ;
+available for the administrator's interpretation.
+.It Em video
+Used for access to
+.Pa /dev/drm/*
+devices, which are used for GPU hardware acceleration.
+See
+.Xr drm 7 .
+.It Em realtime
+Used by
+.Xr mac_priotiry 4
+to allow members of this group to run threads and processes with
+realtime scheduling priority.
+See also
+.Xr rtprio 1 .
+.It Em idletime
+Used by
+.Xr mac_priority 4
+to allow members of this group to run processes with idle scheduling
+priority.
+See also
+.Xr idprio 1 .
+.It Em bind
+Used to be used as primary group for the
+.Em bind
+pseudo-user used by
+.Xr named 8
+Internet domain name server, which has been removed from the base system in
+.Fx 10.0 .
+.It Em unbound
+Primary group for the
+.Em unbound
+pseudo-user used by the
+.Xr local-unbound 8
+recursive DNS resolver.
+.It Em proxy
+Primary group for the
+.Em proxy
+pseudo-user used by the
+.Xr ftp-proxy 8
+proxy daemon with packet filters such as
+.Xr pf 4 .
+.It Em authpf
+Used by the set-group-id program
+.Xr authpf 8
+to configure authenticated gateways.
+.It Em _pflogd
+Primary group for the
+.Em _pflogd
+pseudo-user used by the
+.Xr pflogd 8
+log daemon with the
+.Xr pf 4
+packet filter.
+.It Em _dhcp
+Primary group for the
+.Em _dhcp
+pseudo-user used by the
+.Xr dhclient 8
+DHCP Client.
+.It Em dialer
+Users authorized to make outgoing modem calls (see
+.Xr cu 1
+and
+.Pa /dev/cuauN
+devices).
+.It Em network
+Historic group.
+Unused in modern
+.Fx .
+.It Em audit
+Primary group for the
+.Em auditdistd
+pseudo-user used by
+.Xr auditd 8
+and
+.Xr auditdistd 8
+audit daemons.
+.It Em www
+Historic group for accessing World Wide Web.
+Unused in modern
+.Fx .
+.It Em u2f
+Used for users who need to access
+.Pa /dev/u2f/*
+devices (see
+.Xr u2f 4 ) .
+.It Em ntpd
+Primary group for the
+.Em ntpd
+pseudo-user used by the
+.Xr ntpd 8
+network time protocol daemon.
+.It Em _ypldap
+Primary group for the
+.Em _ypldap
+pseudo-user used by
+.Xr ypldap 8
+daemon.
+.It Em hast
+Primary group for the
+.Em hast
+pseudo-user used by
+Highly Available Storage daemon
+.Xr hastd 8 .
+.It Em tests
+Primary group for the
+.Em tests
+pseudo-user used by
+automatic tests that request to run unprivileged.
+See
+.Xr tests 7 .
+.It Em nogroup
+Pseudo-group (fake group).
+It differs from group
+.Em nobody
+in way that
+.Em nogroup
+doesn't have a dedicated user for it.
+For instance, this group is used for users
+.Em tty
+and
+.Em kmem .
+.It Em nobody
+Primary group for the traditional
+.Em nobody
+pseudo-user.
+Modern practice is to assign to each different daemon its own separate
+pseudo-user account and group so that if one daemon is compromised it
+does not compromise all the other daemons.
+.Pp
+See also group
+.Em nogroup .
+.El
+.Sh FILES
+.Bl -tag -width "/usr/src/etc/group" -compact
+.It Pa /etc/group
+Main group permissions file.
+.It Pa /usr/src/etc/group
+Group permissions file for the base system.
+.It Pa /usr/ports/GIDs
+A list of GIDs (group IDs) reserved for ports (see
+.Xr ports 7 ) .
+.El
+.Pp
+See
+.Xr group 5
+for the format of abovementioned files.
+.Sh SEE ALSO
+.Xr chgrp 1 ,
+.Xr groups 1 ,
+.Xr id 1 ,
+.Xr newgrp 1 ,
+.Xr group 5 ,
+.Xr pw 8
+.Sh HISTORY
+The
+.Nm
+manual page appeared in
+.Nx 10.0
+and
+.Fx 15.1 .
diff --git a/usr.bin/id/groups.1 b/usr.bin/id/groups.1
index 1a6b4f769b05..38e7f05d6c7b 100644
--- a/usr.bin/id/groups.1
+++ b/usr.bin/id/groups.1
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
-.Dd June 6, 1993
+.Dd April 19, 2026
.Dt GROUPS 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
@@ -59,4 +59,5 @@ $ groups root
wheel operator
.Ed
.Sh SEE ALSO
-.Xr id 1
+.Xr id 1 ,
+.Xr groups 7
diff --git a/usr.bin/id/id.1 b/usr.bin/id/id.1
index 62c941f84798..e92daee39cb0 100644
--- a/usr.bin/id/id.1
+++ b/usr.bin/id/id.1
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
-.Dd October 23, 2025
+.Dd April 19, 2026
.Dt ID 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
@@ -180,7 +180,8 @@ bob pts/5 Dec 4 19:51
.Ed
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr groups 1 ,
-.Xr who 1
+.Xr who 1 ,
+.Xr groups 7
.Sh STANDARDS
The
.Nm
diff --git a/usr.bin/newgrp/newgrp.1 b/usr.bin/newgrp/newgrp.1
index 032aeb72616d..4c134708b147 100644
--- a/usr.bin/newgrp/newgrp.1
+++ b/usr.bin/newgrp/newgrp.1
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
-.Dd February 6, 2025
+.Dd April 19, 2026
.Dt NEWGRP 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
@@ -91,7 +91,8 @@ As a non-root user, switch to the group:
.Xr umask 1 ,
.Xr group 5 ,
.Xr passwd 5 ,
-.Xr environ 7
+.Xr environ 7 ,
+.Xr groups 7
.Sh STANDARDS
The
.Nm
diff --git a/usr.sbin/adduser/adduser.8 b/usr.sbin/adduser/adduser.8
index eacc12a8f3ce..651e0ac91809 100644
--- a/usr.sbin/adduser/adduser.8
+++ b/usr.sbin/adduser/adduser.8
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
-.Dd December 1, 2024
+.Dd April 19, 2026
.Dt ADDUSER 8
.Os
.Sh NAME
@@ -445,6 +445,7 @@ logfile for
.Xr login.conf 5 ,
.Xr passwd 5 ,
.Xr shells 5 ,
+.Xr groups 7 ,
.Xr pw 8 ,
.Xr pwd_mkdb 8 ,
.Xr rmuser 8 ,
diff --git a/usr.sbin/chkgrp/chkgrp.8 b/usr.sbin/chkgrp/chkgrp.8
index 3837e5fe6803..95dc272fb2db 100644
--- a/usr.sbin/chkgrp/chkgrp.8
+++ b/usr.sbin/chkgrp/chkgrp.8
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
.\" (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF
.\" THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
-.Dd May 26, 2005
+.Dd April 19, 2026
.Dt CHKGRP 8
.Os
.Sh NAME
@@ -73,7 +73,8 @@ will print an error message containing the name of the file being
scanned and the line number on which the error was found.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr getgrent 3 ,
-.Xr group 5
+.Xr group 5 ,
+.Xr groups 7
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
diff --git a/usr.sbin/chown/chgrp.1 b/usr.sbin/chown/chgrp.1
index f05c81e4bae7..95ca2b3bfd27 100644
--- a/usr.sbin/chown/chgrp.1
+++ b/usr.sbin/chown/chgrp.1
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
-.Dd January 7, 2017
+.Dd April 19, 2026
.Dt CHGRP 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
@@ -148,6 +148,7 @@ options are non-standard and their use in scripts is not recommended.
.Xr fts 3 ,
.Xr group 5 ,
.Xr passwd 5 ,
+.Xr groups 7 ,
.Xr symlink 7 ,
.Xr chown 8
.Sh STANDARDS
diff --git a/usr.sbin/chown/chown.8 b/usr.sbin/chown/chown.8
index 9f4cfafb6852..6c62f3267882 100644
--- a/usr.sbin/chown/chown.8
+++ b/usr.sbin/chown/chown.8
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
-.Dd August 24, 2022
+.Dd April 19, 2026
.Dt CHOWN 8
.Os
.Sh NAME
@@ -166,6 +166,7 @@ options are non-standard and their use in scripts is not recommended.
.Xr find 1 ,
.Xr chown 2 ,
.Xr fts 3 ,
+.Xr groups 7 ,
.Xr symlink 7
.Sh STANDARDS
The
diff --git a/usr.sbin/pw/pw.8 b/usr.sbin/pw/pw.8
index 91d746e90c02..1498f76fd9c5 100644
--- a/usr.sbin/pw/pw.8
+++ b/usr.sbin/pw/pw.8
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
-.Dd February 11, 2026
+.Dd April 19, 2026
.Dt PW 8
.Os
.Sh NAME
@@ -1104,6 +1104,7 @@ No base home directory configured.
.Xr login.conf 5 ,
.Xr passwd 5 ,
.Xr pw.conf 5 ,
+.Xr groups 7 ,
.Xr pwd_mkdb 8 ,
.Xr vipw 8 ,
.Xr zfs 8