SG(1)

📦
version 4.19.0 · 18 versions
, in fedora 44

💖 SG(1) — the sg girlies' manual 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to the sg page ✨ this is a User Command, and honestly? it's giving "group ID glow-up" and I'm obsessed 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

sg — execute command as a different group ID 💅

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

sg [-] group [[-c] command]

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so here's the tea 🍓: the sg command is lowkey the same vibe as newgrp, except — and this is the iconic part — it actually accepts a command. slay.

That command gets executed with the /bin/sh shell, no cap. And here's the thing bestie: with most shells you might be running sg from, you have to wrap multi-word commands in quotes. literally just do it, it's not optional, it's the vibe. 🙈

Another difference between newgrp and sg? okay so some shells treat newgrp specially — they replace themselves with a whole new instance of a shell that newgrp creates. main character energy fr. That does NOT happen with sg, so when you exit from an sg command, you're returned to your previous group ID. no drama, no lingering, we go back to how it was. periodt. 👑

💅 OPTIONS 💅

the options that apply to the sg command are, bestie:

  • -, -l — start the shell as a login shell. yes queen, log in properly 🌈
  • -c — specify a command that will be invoked by the shell using its -c.

this one is the default; it's there for backward compatibility. so it's not doing the most, but it's holding it down for the old-school crew 🫶

🎀 CONFIGURATION 🎀

the following configuration variables in /etc/login.defs change the behavior of this tool:

  • SYSLOG_SG_ENAB (boolean) — enable "syslog" logging of sg activity. so like, your sg doings get logged. iykyk 📝

🧚 FILES 🧚

  • /etc/passwd — user account information. the basics 💖
  • /etc/shadow — secure user account information. the secretive one, we love a mystery 💀
  • /etc/group — group account information. group chat energy fr fr 👑
  • /etc/gshadow — secure group account information. the locked group chat, private mode on 🔥

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

id(1), login(1), newgrp(1), su(1), gpasswd(1), group(5), gshadow(5).

go read those too, bestie, they're all part of the lore 🌈

and that's the whole page!! this one came from shadow-utils 4.19.0, dated 04/29/2026 — so yeah, fresh, iconic, exactly the version you're holding. mwah 💋 🦋✨

📦 where this page comes from