[Adduser-devel] Bug#468152: Bug#468152: adduser: Parameter --ingroup does not work

[Daniel Migowski]

Hello Stephan,

Thank you for your enlightening response.

Stephen Gran schrieb:
> This one time, at band camp, Daniel Migowski said:
>   
>> Parameter --ingroup simply does not work. To test, invoke adduser like this:
>>
>>   adduser peter --ingroup cdrom
>>
>> I assume, a "cat /etc/group | grep cdrom" should bring something like this:
>>
>>   cdrom:x:24:peter
>>
>> and not this:
>>
>>   cdrom:x:24:
>>     
>
> The --ingroup option affects what the user's 'primary' group is - this
> information is stored in the passwd file, not the groups file.  So,
> getent passwd peter should return that he is in group 24, or cdrom.
>   
This makes sense, and works.
>> If I am wrong, then this is a bugreport for uncomprehensible documentation,
>> since this says:
>>
>>   --ingroup GROUP
>>         Add  the new user to GROUP instead of a usergroup or the default
>>         group defined by USERS_GID in the adduser.conf file.
>>
>> And i wonder, what differs "GROUP" from "a usergroup", btw.
>>     
> It is sort of an arbitrary way of thinking about it, it's true.  The
> split is:
> peter has some admin defined group as primary (cdrom)
> peter has a primary group same as username (peter - this is a usergroup)
> peter has the same primary group as all other users (group users)
>
> Does that help?  Or do you have a better wording for the documentation?
>   
It helps. I wasn't aware of the primary/secondary group concept. And my 
try for a better wording of the documentation is this (This is what I 
would have understood better, but I am no linux guru, so if this is too 
obvious its okey for me know.):

Set the new users primary group to GROUP instead of creating a new 
usergroup and using this as the primary group or using the default group 
defined by USERS_DIG in the adduser.conf file. If you just want to add 
the new user to other secondary groups, use "adduser <user> <group>" 
after creating the user.

With best regards,
Daniel Migowski