Is there a command to change primary group for a new user in Cygwin?
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Rob Gilliam
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Published on 2013-10-22T15:13:51Z
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cygwin
Is there a way to set a (new) user's primary group in Cygwin's /etc/passwd
file without hand-editing the file?
I have a local group set up for members of the Dev Team on a Windows Server 2008 R2 box so that we can all modify a particular group files, but the regular users can only read them. As some of the work we do uses scripts that rely on Cygwin tools, this group is also in the /etc/group
file.
When I need to add a new user to the "Dev Team" group, I add them in Server Manager, and then use mkpasswd
to add that user to Cygwin's /etc/passwd
file. Unfortunately, they get the regular Domain Users group assigned as their primary group and I then have to go in and edit the passwd
file to change the group.
I now need to write some instructions for someone else who is not au fait with UNIX/Linux/Cygwin so that they can set up new Dev Team users and obviously "hand editing" /etc/passwd
is a recipe for disaster if you don't know what you're doing.
So, is there a way of getting mkpasswd
to set a different primary group, or another tool like Linux's usermod
which can be used for the purpose of changing the group in a more controlled manner?
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