groupdel(1M)															      groupdel(1M)

NAME

       groupdel - delete a group from the system

SYNOPSIS

       group

DESCRIPTION

       The command deletes a group from the system by removing the appropriate entry from the file.

       The  command must be used with the group argument which is the name of the group to be deleted.	The name consists of a string of printable
       characters that may not include a colon or newline

       Refer to usergroupname(5) to understand the functionality changes with the Numeric User Group Name feature.

   Options
       The command uses the following option:

	      Exercise the safe delete feature.  That is, if the gid of the
			primary group of any system user matches the gid of group, then group is not deleted.

   NIS
       The command is aware of NIS user entries.  Only local groups may be deleted with Attempts to delete an NIS group will result in	an  error.
       NIS groups must be administered from the NIS server.  If is used on a system where NIS is installed, it may fail with the error

       (return value 6), if the group specified is an NIS group (see group(4)).

RETURN VALUE

       exits with one of the following values:

	      No error.
	      Invalid command syntax.
	      Invalid argument supplied to an option.
	      group
		   does not exist.
	      Cannot modify the
		   file.
	      file or
		   file busy. Another command may be modifying the file.
	      Unable to open
		   or file is non-existent.
	      group
		   is busy or cannot delete the primary group.

EXAMPLES

       Delete the group from the file if it exists:

WARNINGS

       Because	many users may try to write the file simultaneously, a password locking mechanism was devised.	If this locking fails after subse-
       quent retrying, terminates.

FILES

SEE ALSO

       users(1), groupadd(1M), groupmod(1M), logins(1M), useradd(1M), userdel(1M), usermod(1M), group(4), usergroupname(5).

STANDARDS CONFORMANCE

																      groupdel(1M)