How to Delete Group in Linux (groupdel Command)

In Linux, groups are used to organize and administer user accounts. The primary purpose of groups is to define a set of privileges such as reading, writing, or executing permission for a given resource that can be shared among the users within the group.

A new group can be created using the groupadd command. If a group is no longer needed and can be removed from the system.

This article explains how to remove a group in Linux, using the groupdel command.

groupdel Command Syntax #

The general syntax for the groupdel command is as follows:

groupdel [OPTIONS] GROUPNAME

GROUPNAME is the name of the group you want to remove.

Only the root or a user with sudo privileges can remove groups.

It is not possible to remove the primary group of an existing user without removing the user first.

The groupdel command accepts only a few options that are rarely used. See the groupdel man page for more information about the command’s options.

Deleting a Group in Linux #

To delete(remove) a given group from the system, invoke the groupdel command followed by the group name.

For example, to remove a group named mygroup you would run:

groupdel mygroup

The command above removes the group entry from the /etc/group and /etc/gshadow files.

On success, the groupdel command does not print any output.

You can verify that the group is removed, by listing all groups using the following command:

getent group | grep mygroup

If the group you want to remove doesn’t exist, the system will print an error message like the following:

groupdel: group 'mygroup' does not exist

Conclusion #

In Linux, you can remove groups using the groupdel command.

The same instructions apply for any Linux distribution, including Ubuntu, CentOS, RHEL, Debian, Fedora, and Arch Linux.

Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions.