NEWGRP(1)               FreeBSD General Commands Manual              NEWGRP(1)

NAME

     newgrp - change to a new group

SYNOPSIS

     newgrp [-l] [group]

DESCRIPTION

     The newgrp utility creates a new shell execution environment with
     modified real and effective group IDs.

     The options are as follows:

     -l      Simulate a full login.  The environment and umask are set to what
             would be expected if the user actually logged in again.

     If the group operand is present, a new shell is started with the
     specified effective and real group IDs.  The user will be prompted for a
     password if they are not a member of the specified group.

     Otherwise, the real, effective and supplementary group IDs are restored
     to those from the current user's password database entry.

EXIT STATUS

     The newgrp utility attempts to start the shell regardless of whether
     group IDs were successfully changed.

     If an error occurs and the shell cannot be started, newgrp exits >0.
     Otherwise, the exit status of newgrp is the exit status of the shell.

EXAMPLES

     Create a new group, foo, with pw(8):

           pw group add foo

     Set the group password:

           pw group mod foo -h 0

     As a non-root user, switch to the group:

           newgrp foo

SEE ALSO

     csh(1), groups(1), login(1), sh(1), su(1), umask(1), group(5), passwd(5),
     environ(7), groups(7)

STANDARDS

     The newgrp utility conforms to IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 ("POSIX.1").

HISTORY

     A newgrp utility appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.

BUGS

     For security reasons, the newgrp utility is normally installed without
     the setuid bit.  To enable it, run the following command:

           chmod u+s /usr/bin/newgrp

     Group passwords are inherently insecure as there is no way to stop users
     obtaining the password hash from the group database.  Their use is
     discouraged.  Instead, users should simply be added to the necessary
     groups.

FreeBSD 15.1-STABLE-HBSD        April 19, 2026                       NEWGRP(1)