add a user to a group

Touchito

Account & Login
When I start a particular program, then I get an error message saying to "contact your administrator to add you to the 'boinc_master' user group." What is the best way to add a user to a group in Mac OS X? I would think that this should be a simple task, but I don't see where this is possible in the Accounts control panel, so I guess I shall have to use the command-line.
I have seen elsewhere there is a command "dseditgroup" that can do this, but the man page for this command is kind of confusing, and I understand that this particular family of commands can ruin your system if you use it incorrectly. What's the correct syntax, for example, to add user2 to the group boinc_master? (Incidentally, when I do dscl . list /groups there actually is no "boinc_master" group.)
        Mac mini

Shailly

Sorry I got into the thread to help with the group situation. I'm not familiar with print setup you are dealing with.
Have you managed to get this working or find a work around? If you still need help with the group aspect of the problem post back.
regards

TigerKun

The man page for dseditgroup is even harder to understand than most man pages, and what I've seen online is that the commands beginning with "ds" tend to be very powerful, in the sense that making mistakes can supposedly screw up your system (even to the point of making it unbootable).
Anyway, I might say that I earlier (while I was waiting for a response on this thread) managed to add myself to the boinc_project group using a dseditgroup command that I found online, but that didn't work for the boinc_master group, which I had to "create" anew in the Accounts control panel. The reason I came back and reopened this thread is that I found out that I have to login as the administrator any time that I want to manage print jobs, and according to the error message, what I need to do is add myself to the "print operators" group.
But, I found another thread that says the solution to the print problem is more complex. Apparently, Apple made a design decision to only allow administrators in Snow Leopard to be able to pause and resume print jobs! I disagree with that decision, and the workaround involves using sudo to edit both /etc/cupsd/cups.conf and /etc/authorization which seems a little bit overkill. After all, if dseditgroup is "powerful," imagine how much more powerful changing /etc/authorization might be....
Message was edited by: jonathandl92

AndyGuernsey

If the group already exists and wasn;t created using the Preference Account pane then it doesn;t show up in the Account pane and you will need to add the user from the command line.
See if SL has the command dseditgroup if it does that is the command you want to use. Look at the man page or else Google or the command for examples on how to use it.

Gregmits

Actually, while waiting for your reply, I ended up doing exactly what the instructions said – I had thought that the group had already existed, but apparently it didn't. Unfortunately, after adding it, I got a different error message, and gave up.
The reason I re-opened this thread is that now I want to add the same user to a different group – also one that is not visible in the Accounts control panel.

shaw214

What if the group isn't visible in the Groups list in the Accounts preferences pane? Like I was saying, I have Mac OS 10.6.8 snow leopard, and not Lion. Thanks.

peternam

Select the group from the Groups list in the Users & Groups preference pane. Select the users you want to add to the group.

Dortmunder1

Does Selecting which users may run BOINC Manager help with this? (I don't have BOINC around to test this.)

Hungryleon

Take a look at this link, http://support.apple.com/kb/PH6316

Cliff_N

How do I add an existing user to an existing group? The instructions to which you link pertain to creating a new user or group. Please advise.

pfhansell

Those instructions don't answer my question; remember that I already used the Accounts control panel to create the user, but now I want to add this user to a group.
I noticed the instructions to which you linked are written for Mountain Lion – maybe the Users and Groups control panel in Mountain Lion has more features than the Accounts control panel in Tiger or Snow Leopard?
Message was edited by: jonathandl92

nuvzlopez

Ok, Just follow the instructions on new user and group accounts.

Johnblue62

Local computer.

HeatherShedden

The group that you need to be added to is on your computer or on a server located in another part of the office?
About user and group accounts.
Create a new user or group account.