Groups . . . noob question

[Carl Alexander]

> > In many discussions, man pages, I see a reference to a group "wheel" but 
> > I see no such group on my system....
> 
> Take a look here
> http://ftp.debian.org/doc/base-passwd/users-and-groups.html
> 
> and there:
> http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-opersys.html

Those pages answer a whole lot of questions about groups --- just
not the question that was asked.  Indeed, neither so much as
_mentions_ the wheel group.  

You can find a good discussion of the wheel group as it is
traditionally used in the O'Reilly book "Practical Unix and
Internet Security", pp. 102-103; you can preview the book at
http://books.google.com/books?id=t0IExLP-MPMC

---Alex