Arch Linux

Lone_Wolf

Member

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 11,920

What are those groups for ?

It sometimes looks to me as if there are more and more usergroups in an AL system.

Many are named in some wiki page, but i haven't found a complete list.

Here are some that seem to be useful, i've added what i know members of those groups can do.

video : to use DRI , accelerated display
audio : use sound
optical : burn/read cd/dvd
floppy : write floppy
storage : mount/umount  removable devices (USB)
camera : access camera device ?
scanner : access scanner device ?
log : read the logs in /var/log

The list should probably be a lot longer, please comment/add on it.
Once things are clearer, maybe we can wikify it.

Updated with snowman's additions

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Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

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Snowman

Developer/Forum Fellow

From: Montreal, Canada

Registered: 2004-08-20

Posts: 5,212

Re: What are those groups for ?

video :  to use DRI, accelerated display
camera & scanner : just a guess but probably to access the device that udev creates when you plug-in a camera/scanner (like the optical/storage groups).
log: to read the logs in /var/log.

Some of these groups are system groups that normal users should not be part of.

EDIT:
optical: to also read CD/DVD

neotuli

Lazy Developer

From: London, UK

Registered: 2004-07-06

Posts: 1,204

Website

Re: What are those groups for ?

To the best of my knowledge, there are 56 groups (possibly more) that packages in current/extra may create on your system. All the GIDs are <= 100

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ezzetabi

Member

Registered: 2006-08-27

Posts: 947

Re: What are those groups for ?

I'd add also the command line to add people to a group:
gpasswd -a <username> <groupname>

and what about post this in the  Wiki? ^^