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-rw-r--r--Doc/library/os.rst18
1 files changed, 18 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Doc/library/os.rst b/Doc/library/os.rst
index be322a0..0b66d2b 100644
--- a/Doc/library/os.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/os.rst
@@ -227,6 +227,20 @@ process and user.
Availability: Unix.
+ .. note:: On Mac OS X, :func:`getgroups` behavior differs somewhat from
+ other Unix platforms. If the Python interpreter was built with a
+ deployment target of :const:`10.5` or earlier, :func:`getgroups` returns
+ the list of effective group ids associated with the current user process;
+ this list is limited to a system-defined number of entries, typically 16,
+ and may be modified by calls to :func:`setgroups` if suitably privileged.
+ If built with a deployment target greater than :const:`10.5`,
+ :func:`getgroups` returns the current group access list for the user
+ associated with the effective user id of the process; the group access
+ list may change over the lifetime of the process, it is not affected by
+ calls to :func:`setgroups`, and its length is not limited to 16. The
+ deployment target value, :const:`MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET`, can be
+ obtained with :func:`sysconfig.get_config_var`.
+
.. function:: initgroups(username, gid)
@@ -389,6 +403,10 @@ process and user.
Availability: Unix.
+ .. note:: On Mac OS X, the length of *groups* may not exceed the
+ system-defined maximum number of effective group ids, typically 16.
+ See the documentation for :func:`getgroups` for cases where it may not
+ return the same group list set by calling setgroups().
.. function:: setpgrp()