Bug 44039 – man group, groupadd doesn't define groupname properties

• Status: RESOLVED FIXED
• Product: Gentoo Linux

[Description Clock 2004-03-08 08:57:34 UTC]

Man group, groupadd etc. (also info - the same) don't define what class of words are
the groupnames permitted from. It doesn't specify minimum and maximum length
on these data.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1.man group
2.man groupadd
3.

Actual Results:  
Got a doc that doesn't define limitations on groupname

Expected Results:  
Get a doc that does define limitations on groupname

[Comment 1 Seemant Kulleen (RETIRED) 2004-03-08 18:06:15 UTC]

ciaran, can you find us such a doc?

[Comment 2 Clock 2004-03-11 00:54:36 UTC]

groupadd Test
Test is not a valid group name

[Comment 3 Clock 2004-03-11 00:55:09 UTC]

groupadd Test Test is not a valid group name

[Comment 4 Clock 2004-03-11 00:57:06 UTC]

man usermod (-g switch) has the same problem.

[Comment 5 SpanKY 2004-10-09 21:36:19 UTC]

going by the source code:
    /*
     * Arbitrary limit for group names - max 16
     * characters (same as on HP-UX 10).
     */
    if (strlen (name) > 16)
        return 0;

static int good_name (const char *name)
{
    /*
     * User/group names must match [a-z_][a-z0-9_-]*
     */

[Comment 6 SpanKY 2004-10-09 21:40:09 UTC]

e-mailed the shadow maintainer requesting these restrictions be listed in the manpages

[Comment 7 SpanKY 2005-01-09 22:41:43 UTC]

added a patch to 4.0.6 to include restriction information ... no version bump since this isnt critical :P