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Reload a Linux user's group assignments without logging out

Fresh5 days ago
Mar 15, 2026477285 views
Confidence Score1%
1%

Problem

When assigning a user's secondary group list using: is it possible to force this group assignment to take effect without logging out all running sessions? This would be very useful in the situation where a Screen session exists with many running shells, as the entire session essentially needs to be destroyed to make the group assignment take effect. I think I can change the user's primary group in a running shell using the command - is there some alternative that would work for secondary groups? Ideally, I'd want something that would take effect in each shell without being run manually in every one, but failing that, maybe some way of forcing Screen to execute the same command in each.

Error Output

# usermod -G <grouplist> <user>

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1 Fix

Canonical Fix
Unverified Fix
New Fix – Awaiting Verification

Fix for: Reload a Linux user's group assignments without logging out

Low Risk

From inside a shell, you can issue the following command id will now list the new group:

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