Re: maximum number of groups > 32

[Ed Wilts <ewilts ewilts org>]

On Wed, May 18, 2005 at 10:33:46AM +0100, bob flynn wrote:
> >>Is there a straightforward method in RHEL 3 to increase the maximum of
> >>groups to > 32?  I know it was difficult/impossible a few years ago, but
> >>I'm hoping that it's changed...
> > 
> not in rhel3. is fixed for rhel4.
> 
> Can someone help on this. My understanding that the max number of groups 
> was 16, and that the restraint was a 4 bit field.
> Certainly under NIS this is the case. I have look in the man page for 
> group and cannot see anything about 32 being a max size.
> 
> Can someone point to the 32 constraint on RH3, and the expansion beyond 
> this for RH4. Pointers to this in documentation would be useful.

It's a bit odd right now.  usermod will generate an error if you try to
modify a user to contain more than 32 groups.  However, gpasswd will
happily (and silently) let you add more groups to a user even though you
can't use them.

I wish I was at RHEL4...  :-(

Thanks everybody,
        .../Ed

-- 
Ed Wilts, RHCE
Mounds View, MN, USA
mailto:ewilts ewilts org
Member #1, Red Hat Community Ambassador Program