The options which apply to the groupdel command are:

-f, --force

This option forces the removal of the group, even if theres some user having the group as the primary one.

-h, --help

Display help message and exit.

-R, --root CHROOT_DIR

Apply changes in the CHROOT_DIR directory and use the configuration files from the CHROOT_DIR directory. Only absolute paths are supported.

-P, --prefix PREFIX_DIR

Apply changes in the PREFIX_DIR directory and use the configuration files from the PREFIX_DIR directory. This option does not chroot and is intended for preparing a cross-compilation target. Some limitations: NIS and LDAP users/groups are not verified. PAM authentication is using the host files. No SELINUX support.

You may not remove the primary group of any existing user. You must remove the user before you remove the group.

You should manually check all file systems to ensure that no files remain owned by this group.

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

MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP (number)

Maximum members per group entry. When the maximum is reached, a new group entry (line) is started in /etc/group (with the same name, same password, and same GID).

The default value is 0, meaning that there are no limits in the number of members in a group.

This feature (split group) permits to limit the length of lines in the group file. This is useful to make sure that lines for NIS groups are not larger than 1024 characters.

If you need to enforce such limit, you can use 25.

Note: split groups may not be supported by all tools (even in the Shadow toolsuite). You should not use this variable unless you really need it.

/etc/group

Group account information.

/etc/gshadow

Secure group account information.

The groupdel command exits with the following values:

0

success

2

invalid command syntax

6

specified group doesnt exist

8

cant remove users primary group

10

cant update group file