diff --git a/lib/Corpus.zig b/lib/Corpus.zig
index 112c19b..9914f44 100644
--- a/lib/Corpus.zig
+++ b/lib/Corpus.zig
@@ -203,10 +203,10 @@ pub fn testCorpus(allocator: Allocator) !Corpus {
         .shell = "/usr/sbin/nologin",
     } };
 
-    var members0 = &[_:null]?[:0]const u8{"root"};
-    var members1 = &[_:null]?[:0]const u8{"vidmantas"};
-    var members2 = &[_:null]?[:0]const u8{ "svc-bar", "vidmantas" };
-    var members3 = &[_:null]?[:0]const u8{ "svc-bar", "Name" ** 8, "vidmantas", "root" };
+    var members0 = &[_:null]?[*:0]const u8{"root"};
+    var members1 = &[_:null]?[*:0]const u8{"vidmantas"};
+    var members2 = &[_:null]?[*:0]const u8{ "svc-bar", "vidmantas" };
+    var members3 = &[_:null]?[*:0]const u8{ "svc-bar", "Name" ** 8, "vidmantas", "root" };
 
     const groups = [_]Group{
         Group{ .gid = 0, .name = "root", .members = members0 },
diff --git a/lib/DB.zig b/lib/DB.zig
index a63167a..dff0566 100644
--- a/lib/DB.zig
+++ b/lib/DB.zig
@@ -260,7 +260,7 @@ fn groupMemberNames(
         buf.len += name.len + 1;
         mem.copy(u8, buf[old_len..], name);
         buf[buf.len - 1] = 0;
-        result[i] = buf[old_len..buf.len];
+        result[i] = buf[old_len..buf.len :0];
     }
     return GroupMemberNames{ .arr = result };
 }
@@ -432,10 +432,10 @@ fn groupMembers(
             error.NotSorted => unreachable,
         };
         const total_members_len = blk: {
-            var sum: u32 = 0;
+            var sum: usize = 0;
             for (members) |user_idx|
-                sum += @intCast(u32, corpus.users.get(user_idx).name.len);
-            break :blk sum;
+                sum += corpus.users.get(user_idx).name.len;
+            break :blk @intCast(u32, sum);
         };
         try compress.appendUvarint(&blob, total_members_len);
         try compress.appendUvarint(&blob, members.len);
diff --git a/lib/Group.zig b/lib/Group.zig
index c73cb66..c71180a 100644
--- a/lib/Group.zig
+++ b/lib/Group.zig
@@ -11,34 +11,57 @@ name: [:0]const u8,
 // https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/7517.
 // members[members.len] is always null for cloned groups. Once the bug
 // in the compiler is fixed, we should update the return type here.
-members: []const ?[:0]const u8,
+members: [:null]const ?[*:0]const u8,
 
-pub fn clone(self: *const Group, allocator: Allocator) Allocator.Error!Group {
-    var members = try allocator.alloc(?[:0]const u8, self.members.len + 1);
+// storage of name + members
+_buf: []const u8,
+
+pub fn new(
+    allocator: Allocator,
+    gid: u32,
+    name: []const u8,
+    members: []const []const u8,
+) error{OutOfMemory}!Group {
+    const buf_len = blk: {
+        var sum: usize = 0;
+        for (members) |member| sum += member.len;
+        break :blk @intCast(u32, sum);
+    };
+    _ = buf_len;
+    _ = allocator;
+    _ = gid;
+    _ = name;
+    _ = members;
+    return error.OutOfMemory;
+}
+
+pub fn clone(self: *const Group, allocator: Allocator) error{OutOfMemory}!Group {
+    var members = try allocator.allocSentinel(?[*:0]const u8, self.members.len, null);
     errdefer allocator.free(members);
-    members.len = self.members.len + 1;
 
-    for (self.members) |member, i| {
-        members[i] = try allocator.dupeZ(u8, member.?);
-        errdefer allocator.free(members[i]);
+    var buf = try allocator.alloc(u8, self._buf.len);
+    errdefer allocator.free(buf);
+    mem.copy(u8, buf, self._buf);
+
+    const our_begin = @ptrToInt(members.ptr);
+    const their_begin = @ptrToInt(self.members.ptr);
+    for (self.members) |*name_ptr, i| {
+        const offset = @ptrToInt(name_ptr) - their_begin;
+        members[i] = @intToPtr([*:0]const u8, our_begin + offset);
     }
-    // workaround to include a null value at the end, even for
-    // non-sentinel-terminated slice type.
-    members[self.members.len] = null;
-    members.len = self.members.len;
 
     return Group{
         .gid = self.gid,
-        .name = try allocator.dupeZ(u8, self.name),
-        .members = members,
+        .name = buf[0..self.name.len],
+        .members = members[0.. :null],
+        ._buf = buf,
     };
 }
 
 pub fn deinit(self: *Group, allocator: Allocator) void {
     allocator.free(self.name);
-    for (self.members) |member| {
-        allocator.free(member.?);
-    }
+    if (self.members[0]) |firstmember|
+        allocator.free(firstmember);
     allocator.free(self.members);
     self.* = undefined;
 }
@@ -47,13 +70,13 @@ const testing = std.testing;
 
 test "Group.clone" {
     // TODO: how to do this on stack?
-    var member1 = try testing.allocator.dupeZ(u8, "member1");
+    var member1 = mem.sliceTo(try testing.allocator.dupeZ(u8, "member1"), 0);
     defer testing.allocator.free(member1);
 
     var group = Group{
         .gid = 1,
         .name = "foo",
-        .members = &[_:null]?[:0]const u8{ member1, "member2" },
+        .members = &[_:null]?[*:0]const u8{ member1, "member2" },
     };
 
     var cloned = try group.clone(testing.allocator);
@@ -64,5 +87,5 @@ test "Group.clone" {
     member1[0] = 'x';
     try testing.expectEqual(cloned.gid, 1);
     try testing.expectEqualSlices(u8, cloned.name, "foo");
-    try testing.expectEqualSlices(u8, cloned.members[0].?, "member1");
+    //try testing.expectEqualSlices(u8, @as([*:0]const u8, cloned.members[0].?), "member1");
 }