What Are Groups?
The system uses a number of mechanisms to make sure that users' files are protected from everyone else. Gathering related users together into “groups” is one of these mechanisms. This allows users to easily share any common resources, and it also provides an opportunity to control file access on a group basis. We'll look at user and group permissions in more detail in Chapter 4, “Permissions and All That.”
To ensure this mechanism works, each user must be a member of at least one group, which is known as the user's primary group. In addition, users can also be members of a number of other groups, known as their secondary groups.
Using secondary groups provides a degree of flexibility for the user. For example, assume your primary ...
Get Solaris™ Operating Environment Boot Camp now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
