EX200 Manage users and groups Practice Question
An administrator accidentally deleted the group 'sales' which is the primary group of several users. What is the immediate effect on those users?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common misconception is that deleting a group will prevent users from logging in or will automatically reassign their primary group. In Red Hat Enterprise Linux, login is unaffected and the GID remains in /etc/passwd until manually changed, so files will show the numeric GID instead of the group name.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Their files will show a missing GID in directory listings
When a group is deleted, the system does not retroactively change the GID stored in the /etc/passwd file for users whose primary group was that group. The GID field in /etc/passwd still contains the numeric GID of the deleted group, but since the group no longer exists in /etc/group, the system cannot resolve that GID to a group name. As a result, commands like ls -l will display the numeric GID instead of the group name for files owned by those users, because the GID-to-name mapping fails.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Their files will show a missing GID in directory listings
Why this is correct
When the sales group is deleted, the group definition is removed from /etc/group, but the GID itself remains in the inode metadata of any files previously owned by that group. The ls command invokes getgrgid() to map that GID back to a group name; when the mapping fails, ls falls back to printing the raw numeric GID. As a result, directory listings show an unresolved numeric GID rather than the name 'sales', while the files themselves remain intact and fully accessible.
- ✗
The system will recreate the group automatically
Why it's wrong here
Linux has no daemon or automatic process that watches for missing groups and recreates them; the group database is purely a set of static entries managed manually with tools like groupadd, groupmod, and groupdel. Deletion is an explicit administrative action that persists until an administrator explicitly re-adds an entry, and even then a new group with the same GID would be a distinct entity, not a resurrection of the original group. Therefore, the group remains absent, and any files displaying that GID continue to show the numeric value.
- ✗
Their primary group will be changed to their UID
Why it's wrong here
A user's primary group is stored as a numeric GID in the fourth field of /etc/passwd, and deleting the group's /etc/group entry does not modify that field. The kernel uses the raw GID for access control, and there is no mechanism that substitutes the user's UID into the GID slot. While many distributions create a private group with the same number as the UID, that is only a naming/setup convention; if the group is deleted, the GID stays unchanged, and only a deliberate usermod -g could alter it.
- ✗
They will be unable to log in
Why it's wrong here
Authentication and login are independent of whether the user's primary or supplementary group still exists in /etc/group. A deleted group does not affect password verification, PAM session setup, or the creation of the user's shell processes; the system simply carries the numeric GID forward. Even with a missing group, the user can complete a successful login, though commands like id may report the group as unresolved, and applications that enforce group-based access may behave unexpectedly.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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