How to add user to a group from Mac OS X command line?

Question

trying to add a user to a group from the command line but can't figure out how?

Specifically this is on Mac OS X Server 10.5.8

like to add user to 'admin' and 'wheel' groups

Answer 1

sudo dseditgroup -o edit -a usernametoadd -t user admin
sudo dseditgroup -o edit -a usernametoadd -t user wheel

It's also possible to do this with dscl, but to do it properly you need to both add the user's short name to the group's GroupMembership list, and add the user's GeneratedUID to the group's GroupMembers list. dseditgroup takes care of both in a single operation.

Answer 2

Check out this link:

http://osxdaily.com/2007/10/29/how-to-add-a-user-from-the-os-x-command-line-works-with-leopard/

Adding a user is something easily accomplished using the built in GUI tools that ship with OS X, however any power user can appreciate the possible efficiency gained from using the command line. So in the spirit of efficiency here are the steps necessary to add a user to your Mac OS X system all with our good friend, Terminal.app.

The important bit is here:

Create and set the user’s group ID property.

dscl / -create /Users/toddharris PrimaryGroupID 1000