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Accepted
Tony
Asked: 2010-04-14 05:26:07 +0800 CST

How do I add a group in Mac OS X 10.6?

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Surprisingly, it's been tough for me to find the command(s) to do this. Does anyone know how to add a group? Thanks!

Or do something like this:

# create the MySQL group
dscl . create /Groups/mysql
# give it some group id
dscl . create /Groups/mysql gid 296
mac-osx groups

4 Answers

  1. "System preferences" -> "Users&Groups" -> "+" (as if you were adding new account) -> Under "New account" select "Group" -> Type in group name -> "Create group"

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  2. Best Answer

    I've used these to add dba group:

    sudo dscl . -create /groups/dba
sudo dscl . -append /groups/dba gid 4200
sudo dscl . -append /groups/dba passwd "*"
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  3. pulegium's answer is generally preferred, but if you want a command-line way:

    sudo dseditgroup -o create mysql

    (note that creating a group named mysql is probably a bad idea -- there's already a group named _mysql, with mysql as an alias.)

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  4. As Gordon Davisson notes, standard Mac OS X 10.6 already has a mysql group, as this command shows:

    dscl . -read /Groups/mysql

    You shouldn’t create your own mysql group, and any attempts to modify it will affect the _mysql group. But to answer your question, the most succinct way to do it would be this single command:

    dscl . -create /Groups/mysql gid 296

    To add an encrypted password to the group:

    dscl . -passwd /Users/mysql ‘my secret’

    Note: Andrea Girardi’s method creates a plaintext password, which isn’t so good.

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