Anybody know how to add groups and users ?

The books I've already purchased from the slackware store mention adding groups in the /etc/group the problem is there is no /etc/group and if I try to get their in bash it tells me access is denied which is not supposed to be possible because sofar I can only login as root due to the fact that I can't add another user untill I can add the user to a group, and I need to know what groups are available to chose from and now as far as I can tell there is no group folder, "Sounds like politics to me" ?



So, in GNOME I go to root home, click on tree in the address bar I enter address: /etc, hit enter and no folder named group! any books out their that has any accuracy to Slackware 8.1 ?
I've looked at Unleashed 7.0 but that is for Slackware 4.0.
So far I can't find any documentation on Slackware that has any accuracy with 8.1 How do I find man pages on subjects or at all maybe they are up to date ?

maybe the commands don't change, but the files sure seem to...

Why doesn't Slackware have more up to date books ?

You can use Slackware's "adduser" script. It should be installed under /usr/sbin/ (<- in case you would like to see if it exists). Run it as root, and follow the directions.

Then to add more groups, in case you did not add them while running the adduser script, you can edit the /etc/group file, and add new users to the groups. BTW, /etc/group is a file, not a directory.

For more information you can check out /usr/docs/Linux-HOWTOs, /usr/docs/Linux-mini-HOWTOs, do a man on "group" and "groups", or search the net.

In the event your group file does not exist under /etc (but I seriously doubt it, otherwise your system would have given you some errors), then something happened during your installation. You can re-install it by mounting your Slackware CD (usually under /mnt/cdrom), change directory to where the etc package exists (/mnt/cdrom/slackware/a) and then re-install the /etc files by running (as root):

"installpkg etc-5.0-noarch-7.tgz".


Hope this helps.

GL

Its not a folder called group, its a file. The groups are read from that file.

To view the file:

more /etc/group or
less /etc/group

To edit, you can use vi like this:

vi /etc/group

Also you can use the groupadd at the command prompt.

man groupadd for more details.

Also there is a useradd command to add users.

man useradd for more details.

Yes this is helping, those powerfull commands definately get me around... Thanks guys,

I still do not see any groups to chose from though.
( Not as if I really know what I'm looking at either )

Or do I just start adding groups hoping that the "users group" & "admin group" isn't there, etc, then my next question is how to set the permissions per group?

then I get stuck in the command prompt terminals, especially after entering "vi /etc/groups" and "man groupadd", but how do I get back to a command prompt ? killing the window and opening another Terminal screen?

When done looking at a man page, press the ' q ' key.

To exit vi without saving the file, press Esc then type :q!. To exit vi and save the file, press Esc then type :wq!
.

Wow, thanks...
A good example of a little knowledge going a long way...

after adding groups, can you see them anywhere, I may forget about a group and not back them up...

After adding a group, it automatically updates the /etc/group file for you.
You wouldn't necessarily backup a group, but the files they may own.

Group permissions are the rwx[size=large]rwx[/size]rwx.. ( <--- in bold and large ) of the permissions. To make a particular group ( example the group users ) the owner of a directory or file, you would do a:

chgrp users /filename

man chgrp for more details.

Gotchya, Thanks...