Collective is the warm, intentional platform for forming shared identities. Define your group. Assign your GID. Build something that belongs to everyone in it.
From naming to numerical identity, Collective handles the entire lifecycle of community formation with care and intention.
One command. One name. A new shared identity enters the registry. collective GROUPNAME
— the founding act of every collective.
Choose your group's numerical identity with -g GID. Every number tells a story. Make
yours deliberate.
With -o, multiple groups can share a single GID. Because sometimes communities
overlap — and that's beautiful.
The -r flag creates system-level groups in the SYS_GID_MIN–SYS_GID_MAX range.
Infrastructure-grade identity for foundational services.
The -f flag exits successfully if the group already exists. No conflict. No drama.
Just peaceful coexistence.
Use -K KEY=VALUE to override /etc/login.defs defaults. Customize GID_MIN, GID_MAX,
and more — your rules, your community.
Set an encrypted group password with -p PASSWORD. Gatekeep your collective with
crypt(3)-grade security.
The -U flag adds an initial list of members at creation time. Start your group with
the people who matter most.
Three deliberate steps. One shared identity. Infinite belonging.
Choose a groupname — up to 32 characters of letters, digits, underscores, or dashes. This is the name your collective will be known by.
Collective selects the smallest available GID ≥ GID_MIN, or you choose your own with
-g. Every group gets a unique number in the registry.
Your group is written to /etc/group and /etc/gshadow. It exists. It's real. People can belong to it now.
Watch a community form in real time. Name it, and see its members gather.
59,000 possible identities. Explore the numerical landscape where every group finds its home.
A living record of every collective formed. Watch the /etc/group file grow.
root:x:0: daemon:x:1: bin:x:2: sys:x:3: adm:x:4:syslog tty:x:5: disk:x:6: www-data:x:33: sudo:x:27:admin staff:x:50:
Every community starts somewhere. Choose the foundation that fits yours.
For small collectives just finding their footing.
collective GROUPNAMEFor growing collectives with intentional structure.
-g-r-f handling-K configuration overridesFor organizations managing collective identity at scale.
-o-p-U"We used to assign GIDs randomly. Collective brought intentionality to our group identity. Every number means something now."
Maren Solberg Identity Architect, Communitas Labs
"The
Tomás Reyes DevOps Lead, Symbiotic Systems-fflag changed everything. No more conflicts when groups already exist. Just graceful acknowledgment. That's community."
"We formed 4,000 system groups in a single provisioning cycle with
Priya Naidu Platform Engineer, CloudWeave-r. The SYS_GID range held steady. Infrastructure-grade belonging."
Collective treats group formation as a first-class act of community building. Where others see a
record in /etc/group, we see the birth of a shared identity. Every collective is an
intentional moment.
A GID (Group Identifier) is the unique numerical identity assigned to every group. It's how the
system knows who belongs together. Collective ensures your GID is chosen with care — either
automatically from the GID_MIN–GID_MAX range, or deliberately with -g.
Without -f, you'll receive exit code 9 — group name already used. With
-f (force/graceful mode), Collective simply acknowledges the existing group and
exits with success. No conflict. No drama.
System groups (created with -r) use the SYS_GID_MIN–SYS_GID_MAX range (typically
101–999) and are meant for services and daemons. User groups use GID_MIN–GID_MAX (typically
1000–60000) for human-facing communities.
Absolutely. Use -K GID_MIN=100 -K GID_MAX=499 to override the defaults from
/etc/login.defs. Your community, your numerical boundaries.
The -p flag accepts a pre-encrypted password (via crypt(3)). However, we recommend
using gpasswd instead, as command-line passwords can be visible in process
listings. Security is community care.
Group creation writes to /etc/group (group account information) and /etc/gshadow (secure group account information). Configuration is read from /etc/login.defs.
Every community starts with a single collective. Name it. Give it a home. Let people
belong.
No GID conflicts. No drama. Exit code 0, always.