The gpasswd command is used to administer “/etc/group
” and “/etc/gshadow
” file but that does not give you the complete context.
In other words, using the gpasswd command, you can add or remove users from a group, add or remove passwords from a group, promote a user as group admin, and set the list of group members.
On a positive note, remember that setting a password for a group is never a good idea for security reasons because all users are required to know the group password.
Tutorial Details
Description | Gpasswd |
Difficulty Level | Low |
Root or Sudo Privileges | Yes |
OS Compatibility | Ubuntu, Manjaro, Fedora, etc. |
Prerequisites | gpasswd |
Internet Required | No |
Syntax of the Gpasswd Command
The gpasswd command requires two arguments: one is the option, and the other is the group name.
$ gpasswd [OPTION] [GROUP]
Demo Group for Gpasswd Practise
To demonstrate the gpasswd command’s practical usage, we will create a temporary group (ex: “demogroup
“) using the following command.
$ sudo addgroup demogroup
Output:

Verify the group is created by searching the “demogroup
” name on the “/etc/group
” file using the grep command.
$ grep demogroup /etc/group
Output:

Adding a User to a Group
The following command will add the specified user (ex: “linuxtldr
“) to the newly created group (ex: “demogroup
“).
$ sudo gpasswd -a linuxtldr demogroup
Output:

Use the groups command with the username to verify the user is added to that group.
$ groups linuxtldr
Output:

You can add multiple users to the specified group by using a comma (“,
“) as a separator.
Removing the User from the Group
The following command will remove the specified user (ex: “linuxtldr
“) from the specified group (ex: “demogroup
“).
$ sudo gpasswd -d linuxtldr demogroup
Output:

Verify that the users are removed from the specified group using the following command.
$ groups linuxtldr
Output:

To remove multiple users from the specified group, use a comma (“,
“) as a separator.
Setting the Password for the Group
You can set a password for a group name (ex: “demogroup
“) with the “gpasswd
” command.
$ sudo gpasswd demogroup
Output:

Removing Password from Group
Use the “-r
” or “--remove-password
” flag to remove the password from the specified group.
$ sudo gpasswd -r demogroup
Output:

Promote the User as Group Adminstrator
The following command will assign the specified user as the group administrator.
$ sudo gpasswd -A linuxtldr demogroup
Output:

To demote the user from the administrator position, use the same command, replacing the old user with the new one.
Setting the List of Group Members
Use the “-M
” or “--members
” flag to add multiple users to the specified group using the following command.
$ sudo gpasswd -M linuxtldr,jr demogroup
Output:

Removing the Demo Group
After you are done with the practice, you can remove the “demogroup
” group we created at the beginning of this article by using the following command.
$ sudo groupdel demogroup
Output:

That was the last example.
I hope you enjoyed the article.
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