Remove arbitrary requirement on the length of groups.  Perhaps we 
should turn this into a configure option and send upstream ?

http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3485

Index: libmisc/chkname.c
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/shadow/libmisc/chkname.c,v
retrieving revision 1.8
diff -u -r1.8 chkname.c
--- libmisc/chkname.c	12 May 2003 05:29:14 -0000	1.8
+++ libmisc/chkname.c	10 Jan 2005 06:25:47 -0000
@@ -58,8 +59,10 @@
 	 * Arbitrary limit for group names - max 16
 	 * characters (same as on HP-UX 10).
 	 */
+#if 0
 	if (strlen (name) > 16)
 		return 0;
+#endif
 
 	return good_name (name);
 }
Index: man/groupadd.8
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/shadow/man/groupadd.8,v
retrieving revision 1.21
diff -u -r1.21 groupadd.8
--- man/groupadd.8	4 Nov 2004 03:06:31 -0000	1.21
+++ man/groupadd.8	10 Jan 2005 06:36:51 -0000
@@ -46,6 +46,18 @@
 \fB-o\fR option is used. The value must be non-negative. The default is to
 use the smallest ID value greater than 999 and greater than every other
 group. Values between 0 and 999 are typically reserved for system accounts.
+.SH RESTRICTIONS
+Currently, the shadow suite enforces the following restrictions on group 
+names:
+
+.nf
+\- must begin with a lower case letter or underscore
+\- can only contain lower case letters, underscores, and dashes
+\- regex for these requirements: [a\-z_][a\-z0\-9_\-]*
+.fi
+
+Normally shadow enforces a 16 character limit, but Gentoo adds patches to 
+remove it.
 .SH FILES
 \fI/etc/group\fR	\- group account information
 .br