NAME
groupdel — delete a group from the system
DESCRIPTION
The
groupdel
command deletes a group from the system
by removing the appropriate entry from the
/etc/group
file.
The
groupdel
command must be used with the
group
argument.
group
is the name of the group to be deleted, consisting of a string of printable
characters.
NETWORKING FEATURES
This command is aware of
NIS
user entries.
Only local groups may be deleted with
groupdel.
Attempts to delete an
NIS
group will result in an error.
NIS
groups must be administered from the
NIS
server.
If
groupdel
is used on a system where
NIS
is installed, it may fail with the error
(return value 6), if the group specified is an
NIS
group (see
group(4)).
RETURN VALUE
groupdel
exits with one of the following values:
- 0
No error.
- 2
Invalid command syntax.
- 3
Invalid argument supplied to an option.
- 6
group
does not exist.
- 10
Cannot modify the
/etc/group
file.
- 11
/etc/passwd
file or
/etc/ptmp
file busy. Another command may be modifying the
/etc/passwd
file.
- 12
Unable to open
/etc/ptmp
or
/etc/passwd
file is non-existent.
EXAMPLES
Delete the group
project1
from the
/etc/group
file if it exists:
WARNINGS
As many users may try to write the
/etc/passwd
file simultaneously, a passwd locking mechanism was deviced.
If this locking fails after subsequent retrying,
groupdel
terminates.
STANDARDS CONFORMANCE
groupdel: SVID3