Introduction to UNIX: basic concepts : Basic concepts : Users and Groups
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4.5. Users and Groups

To identify the users on a system, UNIX a combination of users and groups.

User are known by their user id or uid, which is a unique number < 65534, recorded in the password file (/etc/passwd). The group id, or gid allows user to belong to different groups and thus share resources/files with other members.

Only the super-user can add or remove users to/from a group.


Introduction to UNIX: basic concepts : Basic concepts : Users and Groups
Previous: The manuals
Next: Processes, signals and job control