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

Question

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

Answer 1

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 "*"

Answer 2

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

Answer 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.)

Answer 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.