Editing Group identifier (section)

{{Short description|Unix/POSIX system account group number; numeric value used to represent a specific group}}
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In [[Unix-like]] systems, multiple users can be put into ''[[Group (computing)|groups]]''. [[POSIX]] and conventional [[Unix]] [[file system permissions]] are organized into three classes, ''user'', ''group'', and ''others''. The use of groups allows additional abilities to be delegated in an organized fashion, such as access to disks, [[computer printer|printers]], and other [[peripheral]]s. This method, among others, also enables the [[superuser]] to delegate some administrative tasks to normal users, similar to the ''Administrators'' group on [[Windows NT|Microsoft Windows NT]] and its derivatives.

A '''group identifier''', often abbreviated to '''GID''', is a numeric value used to represent a specific group.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Definitions|url=https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799.2018edition/basedefs/V1_chap03.html|access-date=2021-12-06|website=pubs.opengroup.org}}</ref> The range of values for a GID varies amongst different systems; at the very least, a GID can be between 0 and 32,767, with one restriction: the login group for the superuser must have GID 0. This numeric value is used to refer to groups in the <code>[[/etc/passwd]]</code> and <code>/etc/group</code> files or their equivalents. [[Shadow passwords|Shadow password]] files and [[Network Information Service]] also refer to numeric GIDs. The group identifier is a necessary component of [[Unix]] [[file system]]s and [[Process (computing)|processes]].