Group name length max

[David Mores]

Group names used to be limited to a length of 1-8 characters, but it seems that is no longer the case. Group names longer than 8 characters can be used by chgrp on files. However, when ll is used to list this information, the group name field is truncated to 8 characters. Is there a fix for this to make ll show the complete group name?

[Jeff Schussele · Accepted solution]

Hi David,

Take a look at PHCO_24586 - the pwgrd cumulative patch:

http://www2.itrc.hp.com/service/patch/patchDetail.do?patchid=PHCO_24586&context=hpux:800:11:00

Here's a defect description:

Defect Description:
PHCO_24586:
1.pwgrd(1M) can not handle groupnames more than 8
characters in length correctly. This was happening as pwgrd(1M) used to truncate groupnames to 8 characters before caching them. Then this truncated group name used to append in the pwgrd output file.
Resolution:
The code has been modified to take care of the full groupname(without truncation) to be appended to pwgrd output file

Note this has been superseded by PHCO_28006:

http://www2.itrc.hp.com/service/patch/patchDetail.do?patchid=PHCO_28006&context=hpux:800:11:00

HTH,
Jeff

[David Mores]

The patch you suggested (PHCO_28007 for 11.11) did make the ls -l list more of the group name, but not all of it - i.e. only 11 of 12 characters in the group name. Is there perhaps a limitation in the ls command that needs a patch too?

Sorry for the delayed reply - I did not get any email notification on your reply.

[Jeff Schussele]

Hi David,

Did a little searching & cannot find a patch that deals with ls and field width.

Have you tested to see if it's just a display limitation?

Do the following on a file with a long group name

ls -l file_name | awk '{print $4}'

Do you get the entire group name then?
If so it's a limit of what can be displayed.

Rgds,
Jeff

[David Mores]

This does not seem to be a display limitation. The screen width 80 is wide enough to display one more character.

The pipe to awk makes no difference.

BTW - ls -l on Solaris 6 displays the full 12 character group name.