(add new users & groups)

[Matt Navarre]

On Friday 11 June 2004 06:59, LW Ellis wrote:
> OK, I got that part down..
> (sysinstall and adding the user)
> I've ordered a FreeBSD book based on the recommendations I received here
> (this list)
> Until then I'm pretty much shooting in the dark, learning as I go.
>
> I'm not clear on the Unix group/user setup
>
> >From what I have read, FreeBSD will place users in a default group
>
> Do I need a group? I will have about 6 users (not all at once)
> DO I add a group before users?
> Will it be to my benefit down the road to make a group now?

Groups are used for, well, grouping users. Which is kind of opaque, but true.

Basically it has to do with Unix's permission scheme. When you ls -l a file 
you'll se something like this:

-rwxrwxrwx   1 mnavarre  mnavarre      4542 Dec 15  2002 yaptu.py
   ^^^                 ^^^            ^^^               ^^        ^^^                
permissions     owner        group           size     date             fname

Notice the permissions repeat the rwx sequence three times, they stand for 
read, write and execute, each set of letters controls access to the file for 
a diffetent class of users, user group or other. these are considered in that 
order, i.e. if a user tries to write a file first the owner permissions are 
considered, if they allow writing the file is written and we don't look at 
the other permissions, if not we move on to the group permissions if the user 
belongs to the group and there is group write permission file is written, we 
stop, etc., if not we move on to the other permissions, this encompases all 
users who didn't fall into the first two classes.

Keep in mind that many people can belong to one group, that's what they're 
for. You can have a group for a project and put all the users involved in 
that project in a group and use the group permissions to control access to 
those files. What most people do is make a group for each user that only they 
belong to and have that be their main group. users can then be added to other 
groups, and new groups can be added as need arises.

This is kind of brief, and maybe not that helpful, but it's a start. You'll 
also want to read the chmod(1) man page and the Handbook sections on 
permissions:
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/permissions.html

And on Users and account magement:
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/users.html

It might take a bit to get your head around, but you will.
>
> I can't thank you and everyone else that has helped, enough.
> I know newbys can be a pain.
> Leon

OK,
Matt

-- 
"We all enter this world in the same way: naked, screaming,
 and soaked in blood. But if you live your life right, that kind
 of thing doesn't have to stop there." -- Dana Gould