The concept of “group” may be confusing to many Linux users. Linux operating system is designed to allow more than one user to have access to the Linux system at a time. Linux/Unix operating systems provides multitasking abilities to its multi-users. In order to do this task, we need to assign a group to each Linux user. This article gives step by step process on – how to add a user to the group in Linux system.
To create a new user using Linux command line, use the following command –
$ sudo useradd tutorialspoint
The above command is used to create a tutorialspoint user to the Linux system.To see the user list, use the following command –
$ awk -F':' '{ print $1}' /etc/passwd
A sample output will be as below –
....... syslog messagebus usbmux dnsmasq avahi-autoipd kernoops rtkit saned whoopsie speech-dispatcher avahi lightdm colord hplip pulse linux gitlog gitdaemon tutorialspoint
For example, in the above result, you can see that tutorialspoint user is created.
To add a new group in Linux, use the following command –
$ sudo groupadd editors
In the above command ,It is creates a group called editors.
For adding tutorialspoint user to the editors group, use the following command –
$ sudo usermod -a -G editors tutorialspoint
To change the user’s primary group, use the following command –
$ sudo usermod -g linux tutorialspoint
In the above command, assign tutorialspoint user to linux group.
If you’re trying to figure out permissions assigned to a user, then you have to use the id command to see a group which is linked with the particular user. The following is the command line –
$ id tutorialspoint
The sample output will be like this –
uid=1001(tutorialspoint) gid=1000(linux) groups=1000(linux),1002(editors)
Sometimes, you may need to create a user which should have specific accessible rights or directories, then in these cases, use the following command to create a new user and assign a group as below –
$ sudo useradd -g linux john
The above command creates a user called john and which will be added to the linux group. Use the following command to assign a password to john user –
$ sudo passwd john
The sample output should be like this –
linux@linux:~$ sudo passwd john Enter new UNIX password: Retype new UNIX password: passwd: password updated successfully
For example, you might be required to add a user to multiple groups. To do this, use the following command –
$ sudo usermod -a -G linux,editors tutorialspoint
The above command turialspoint user is added to the linux and editors groups.
Congratulations! Now, you know “How to add a User to the Group on Linux”. We’ll learn more about these type of commands in our next Linux post. Keep reading!