Administration Reference

pts creategroup

Purpose

Creates an (empty) Protection Database group entry

Synopsis

pts creategroup -name <group name>⁺  [-owner <owner of the group>] 
                [-id <id (negated) for the group>⁺]  [-cell <cell name>]  
                [-noauth]  [-force]  [-help]
   
pts createg -na <group name>⁺  [-o <owner of the group>] 
            [-i <id (negated) for the group>⁺]  [-c <cell name>]  
            [-no]  [-f]  [-h]
      
pts cg -na <group name>⁺  [-o <owner of the group>]  
       [-i <id (negated) for the group>⁺]  
       [-c <cell name>]  [-no]  [-f]  [-h]

Description

The pts creategroup command creates an entry in the Protection Database for each group specified by the -name argument. The entry records the issuer of the command as the group's creator, and as the group's owner unless the -owner argument names an alternate user or group as the owner.

There are two types of groups:

regular, the names of which have two parts separated by a colon. The part before the colon names the group's owner. Any user can create such groups.
prefix-less, which do not have an owner prefix. Only members of the system:administrators group can create prefix-less groups.

Creating a group lowers the issuer's group-creation quota by one. This is true even if the -owner argument is used to assign ownership to an alternate user or group. To display a user's group-creation quota, use the pts examine command; to set it, use the pts setfields command.

AFS group ID (AFS GID) numbers are negative integers and by default the Protection Server assigns a GID that is one less (more negative) than the current value of the max group id counter in the Protection Database, decrementing the counter by one for each group. Members of the system:administrators group can use the -id argument to assign specific AFS GID numbers. If any of the specified GIDs is lower (more negative) than the current value of the max group id counter, the counter is reset to that value. It is acceptable to specify a GID greater (less negative) than the current value of the counter, but the creation operation fails if an existing group already has it. To display or set the value of the max group id counter, use the pts listmax or pts setmax command, respectively.

Output

The command generates the following string to confirm creation of each group:

   group name has id AFS GID

Cautions

Although using the -owner argument to designate a machine entry as a group's owner does not generate an error, it is not recommended. The Protection Server does not extend the usual privileges of group ownership to users logged onto the machine.

Options

-name

Specifies the name of each group to create. Provide a string of up to 63 characters, which can include lowercase (but not uppercase) letters, numbers, and punctuation marks. A regular name includes a single colon (:) to separate the two parts of the name; the colon cannot appear in a prefix-less group name.

A regular group's name must have the following format:

   owner_name:group_name

and the owner_name field must reflect the actual owner of the group, as follows:

If the optional -owner argument is not included, the field must match the AFS username under which the issuer is currently authenticated.
If the -owner argument names an alternate AFS user, the field must match that AFS username.
If the -owner argument names another regular group, the field must match the owning group's owner field (the part of its name before the colon). If the -owner argument names a prefix-less group, the field must match the owning group's complete name.

-owner

Specifies a user or group as the owner for each group, rather than the issuer of the command. Provide either an AFS username or the name of a regular or prefix-less group. An owning group must already have at least one member. This requirement prevents assignment of self-ownership to a group during its creation; use the pts chown command after issuing this command, if desired.

-id

Specifies a negative integer AFS GID number for each group, rather than allowing the Protection Server to assign it. Precede the integer with a hyphen (-) to indicate that it is negative.

If this argument is used and the -name argument names multiple new groups, it is best to provide an equivalent number of AFS GIDs. The first GID is assigned to the first group, the second to the second group, and so on. If there are fewer GIDs than groups, the Protection Server assigns GIDs to the unmatched groups based on the max group id counter. If there are more GIDs than groups, the excess GIDs are ignored. If any of the GIDs is lower (more negative) than the current value of the max group id counter, the counter is reset to that value.

-cell

Names the cell in which to run the command. For more details, see the introductory pts reference page.

-noauth

Assigns the unprivileged identity anonymous to the issuer. For more details, see the introductory pts reference page.

-force

Enables the command to continue executing as far as possible when errors or other problems occur, rather than halting execution at the first error.

-help

Prints the online help for this command. All other valid options are ignored.

Examples

In the following example, the user pat creates groups called pat:friends and pat:colleagues.

   % pts creategroup -name pat:friends pat:colleagues

The following example shows a member of the system:administrators group creating the prefix-less group staff and assigning its ownership to the system:administrators group rather than to herself.

   % pts creategroup -name staff -owner system:administrators

In the following example, the user pat creates a group called smith:team-members, which is allowed because the -owner argument specifies the required value (smith).

   % pts creategroup -name smith:team-members -owner smith

Privilege Required

The issuer must belong to the system:administrators group to create prefix-less groups or include the -id argument.

To create a regular group, the issuer must

Be authenticated. The command fails if the -noauth flag is provided.
Have a group-creation quota greater than zero. The pts examine command displays this quota.

Related Information