[Gllug] Reason behind groups

[Steve Cobrin]

On Thursday 17 October 2002 09:54, Tethys wrote:
> Walid Shaari writes:
> >how many groups can a single user join in? (e.g. in Solaris 8 I believe
> >its like 16, and thats one reason for use of ACL)
> >
> >is there a similar default limit in Linux?
>
> The group limit is only a problem if you're using NIS. Under Solaris,
> the limit can be increased via kernel parameters, but I think NIS has
> a hardcoded 16 group limit. I'm not aware of any inherent group limit
> for local users under Linux.
>
> Tet

There is an intrinsic problem under Solaris when people belong to more than 16 
groups. I'm not sure if this limit was raised in Solaris 8 or 9. Once people 
start belonging to more than 16 groups, things start to get a bit messy, but 
not impossible. Another limitation with NIS, is the 1024byte size limit. The 
way NIS tried to get round the limitation was by using the "netid" map. I can 
try and dig up more info if your interested.

Back to the main issue, its generally easier to manage when you give people 
their own groups, rather than manage them via the primary group, which over a 
period of time gets messier and messier to administer.

 -- Steve

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