group name is same as username

[SiKing]

Hi.
Not sure where to start and this seems as good of a place as any.

I noticed that when you create a new user the groupname of the account is the same as the username. I have seen this in other distros as well, and was wondering why is this done? What is wrong with just assigning all users to the group "users", and all users with sudo privileges to the group "wheel"?
TIA.

[kubicle]

Re: group name is same as username

Although the 'users' group as the primary group for users is the traditional default (and still used in some distros) the majority of (desktop oriented) distributions use the 'user private group scheme' these days.

Private groups for users bring a bit more flexibility to sharing files between specific users (as opposed to sharing them with all members of the 'users' group). If you feel the 'users' group serves your needs better, there should be no harm in changing the defaults.

As far as 'wheel' goes, I think the 'admin' group for sudo in *buntus is a bit more self-explanatory than wheel. (Group wheel doesn't say much to anyone who is not familiar with it already).

[SiKing]

Re: group name is same as username

Private groups for users bring a bit more flexibility to sharing files between specific users (as opposed to sharing them with all members of the 'users' group).

I don't get it. I thought under the traditional method, you could share with yourself, users, or everyone. Under this new method you can share with yourself, yourself some more, or everyone. Didi I miss something?

If you feel the 'users' group serves your needs better, there should be no harm in changing the defaults.

OK. I am using one of the other *buntus. If I created a user that belongs to the group "users", and the system populated his home directory with bunch of stuff (such as the Documents directory, etc.) that is owned by user "root", that would be a bug?

As far as 'wheel' goes, I think the 'admin' group for sudo in *buntus is a bit more self-explanatory than wheel. (Group wheel doesn't say much to anyone who is not familiar with it already).

Right, I agree there. I think wheel came from BSD?

Thanx for the help.

[kubicle]

Re: group name is same as username

Private groups for users bring a bit more flexibility to sharing files between specific users (as opposed to sharing them with all members of the 'users' group).

I don't get it. I thought under the traditional method, you could share with yourself, users, or everyone. Under this new method you can share with yourself, yourself some more, or everyone. Didi I miss something?

For example, you could add user sarah and mike to group edna, to give them (and no one else) read/write access to files/directories that belong to group edna (Note that this would not grant edna any elevated privileges to access sarah and mike's files/directories as she is not part of their private group). It's just one example, but demonstrates what is meant by flexibility.

OK. I am using one of the other *buntus. Smiley If I created a user that belongs to the group "users", and the system populated his home directory with bunch of stuff (such as the Documents directory, etc.) that is owned by user "root", that would be a bug?

Definitely sounds like a bug, yes. :P
Though probably not related in this case, did you make 'users' the primary group (gid) for the user in question? (command 'id' will tell).

Right, I agree there. I think wheel came from BSD?

Looks like the term precedes even Unix...never heard of TENEX http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_(Unix_term)

[SiKing]

Re: group name is same as username

OK. I am using one of the other *buntus. Smiley If I created a user that belongs to the group "users", and the system populated his home directory with bunch of stuff (such as the Documents directory, etc.) that is owned by user "root", that would be a bug?

Definitely sounds like a bug, yes. :P
Though probably not related in this case, did you make 'users' the primary group (gid) for the user in question? (command 'id' will tell).

Yes, "users" is the primary group for this user. The relation is that when searching for the reason behind this bug, I started looking into what is with the group=username thing, to see if the bug was not in fact behind driving the keyboard. I will follow up with the specific distro - it's Mint, BTW.

Hey, thanx for all the help / explanations.