addgroup

Create groups and manage group membership

TLDR

Create a new group

$ sudo addgroup [groupname]

Create a system group

$ sudo addgroup --system [groupname]

Add a user to an existing group

$ sudo addgroup [username] [groupname]

Create group with specific GID

$ sudo addgroup --gid [1001] [groupname]

SYNOPSIS

addgroup [options] groupaddgroup [options] user group

addgroup is a Debian/Ubuntu friendly frontend to the low-level groupadd command. It creates new groups or adds existing users to groups, following the naming policies and conventions defined in adduser.conf.When adding a user to a group, it modifies /etc/group to include the user as a member. This is the recommended way to manage group membership on Debian-based systems.

PARAMETERS

--gid id

Specify the group ID (GID) for the new group

--system

Create a system group (GID from system range)

--allow-bad-names

Allow group names that don't conform to naming conventions

--conf file

Use alternate configuration file

--quiet

Suppress informational messages

--debug

Print debug information

CONFIGURATION

/etc/adduser.conf

Controls default behavior for addgroup and adduser, including GID ranges for normal and system groups, naming policies, and group creation defaults.

INSTALL

sudo apt install adduser

CAVEATS

Group names must follow naming rules defined in adduser.conf. System groups typically have GIDs below 1000. Users must log out and back in for new group memberships to take effect.

HISTORY

addgroup was created as part of the adduser package for Debian, providing a user-friendly interface for group management that follows distribution policies. It has been part of Debian since the mid-1990s.