Group accounts
Group accounts are special-purpose accounts that allow shared access to a common home directory for members of the group.
Unreviewed migration
Group accounts are special-purpose accounts that allow shared access to a common home directory for members of the group.
System Support can create group accounts for research groups, projects, conference web pages, societies, etc. on request.
Undergraduate assignments and projects that can reasonably be shared out of users' own home directories should use user-managed group instead.
Login vs NoLogin groups
Where possible, we prefer to make groups NoLogin, granting filesystem access only, without the ability to log into a shell as the group account user.
This makes administration a lot simpler, and is significantly better from a security perspective.
However, sometimes this just isn't suitable for the purpose of the group, so we can enable login access if required - talk to us about this if you need it.
Logging into group accounts
There are no passwords set on login group accounts except in very specific circumstances.
Wherever possible, we require the use of SSH keys instead.
Understanding Linux file permissions
Every file and directory on a Linux system has a set of permissions that control the kinds of access that different people have.
Using Secure File Permissions
You need to keep the files in your account secure so unauthorised people can't read, edit, delete or run them.