GETGROUPS(2)						     Linux Programmer's Manual						      GETGROUPS(2)

NAME

       getgroups, setgroups - get/set list of supplementary group IDs

SYNOPSIS

       #include <sys/types.h>
       #include <unistd.h>

       int getgroups(int size, gid_t list[]);

       #include <grp.h>

       int setgroups(size_t size, const gid_t *list);

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

       setgroups(): _BSD_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION

       getgroups()  returns  the supplementary group IDs of the calling process in list.  The argument size should be set to the maximum number of
       items that can be stored in the buffer pointed to by list.  If the calling process is a member of more than size supplementary groups, then
       an  error  results.   It  is unspecified whether the effective group ID of the calling process is included in the returned list.  (Thus, an
       application should also call getegid(2) and add or remove the resulting value.)

       If size is zero, list is not modified, but the total number of supplementary group IDs for the process is returned.  This allows the caller
       to determine the size of a dynamically allocated list to be used in a further call to getgroups().

       setgroups()  sets  the  supplementary  group  IDs  for  the calling process.  Appropriate privileges (Linux: the CAP_SETGID capability) are
       required.  The size argument specifies the number of supplementary group IDs in the buffer pointed to by list.

RETURN VALUE

       On success, getgroups() returns the number of supplementary group IDs.  On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately.

       On success, setgroups() returns 0.  On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately.

ERRORS

       EFAULT list has an invalid address.

       getgroups() can additionally fail with the following error:

       EINVAL size is less than the number of supplementary group IDs, but is not zero.

       setgroups() can additionally fail with the following errors:

       EINVAL size is greater than NGROUPS_MAX (32 before Linux 2.6.4; 65536 since Linux 2.6.4).

       ENOMEM Out of memory.

       EPERM  The calling process has insufficient privilege.

CONFORMING TO

       SVr4, 4.3BSD.  The getgroups() function is in POSIX.1-2001.  Since setgroups() requires privilege, it is not covered by POSIX.1-2001.

NOTES

       A process can have up to NGROUPS_MAX supplementary group IDs in addition to the effective group ID.  The set of supplementary group IDs	is
       inherited from the parent process, and preserved across an execve(2).

       The maximum number of supplementary group IDs can be found using sysconf(3):

	   long ngroups_max;
	   ngroups_max = sysconf(_SC_NGROUPS_MAX);

       The maximum return value of getgroups() cannot be larger than one more than this value.

SEE ALSO

       getgid(2), setgid(2), getgrouplist(3), initgroups(3), capabilities(7), credentials(7)

COLOPHON

       This  page is part of release 3.27 of the Linux man-pages project.  A description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Linux								    2008-06-03							      GETGROUPS(2)