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I was wondering if anyone knew what determines the order of users in /etc/group entries? It does not appear to be alphabetical or by UID or chronologically by date added.

I don't think this makes any difference whatsoever, but I am just curious.

I know that it can be hand-edited and then it will just be in whatever order the admin puts them in, but it appears not to be in any logical order when entered by adding a user to a group via usermod.

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By date-added. If you hand-edit the file, order does not matter.

You can check format with the grpck command.

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  • Clarification: By the date the group was added. Adding a user to a pre-existing group does not change the original order of the entries.
    – Sammitch
    Feb 28, 2014 at 21:44

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