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Chapter 4 Setting Up User Accounts 77
Working with Group Settings
Group settings identify the groups a user belongs to. In Workgroup Manager, use the
Group Settings pane in the user’s account to work with group settings.
For information about how to administer group accounts, see Chapter 5, “Setting Up
Group Accounts.”
Choosing a User’s Primary Group
A primary group is the fastest way to determine whether a user has group permissions
for a file. The primary group ID is used by the file system when the user accesses a file
that he or she doesn’t own. The file system checks the file’s group permissions, and if
the primary group ID of the user matches the ID of the group associated with the file,
the user inherits group access permissions.
Important: Don’t rely on primary group membership when assigning file permissions.
Although you can make a primary group a hierarchical group or a parent of hierarchical
groups, the file permissions for the primary group do not propagate. If a user’s primary
group is a hierarchical group or the parent of a hierarchical group, the user is granted
file permissions only for the primary group.
If the user does not belong to other groups, the user belongs to the primary group. If a
user selects a different workgroup at login, the user still retains access permissions from
the primary group.
The primary group ID should be a unique string of digits. By default, the primary group
ID is 20 (which identifies the group as “staff”), but you can change it. The maximum
value for a group ID is 2,147,483,647.
Use Workgroup Manager to define the primary group ID of an account stored in an
Open Directory domain, the local directory domain, or other read/write directory
domain. You can also use Workgroup Manager to review the primary group information
for any directory domain accessible from the server you’re using.
To set a primary group ID using Workgroup Manager:
1 In Workgroup Manager, click Accounts.
2 Select the user account you want to work with.
To select the account, click the globe icon, choose the directory domain where the
account resides, and then select the user account in the accounts list.
3 To authenticate, click the lock and enter the name and password of a directory domain
administrator.
4 Click Groups and then edit or review the Primary Group ID field.