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NSSWITCH.CONF(5) Linux Programmer's Manual NSSWITCH.CONF(5)
NAME
nsswitch.conf - System Databases and Name Service Switch configuration file
DESCRIPTION
Various functions in the C Library need to be configured to work correctly in the local
environment. Traditionally, this was done by using files (e.g., /etc/passwd), but other
nameservices (like the Network Information Service (NIS) and the Domain Name Service
(DNS)) became popular, and were hacked into the C library, usually with a fixed search
order.
The Linux libc5 with NYS support and the GNU C Library 2.x (libc.so.6) contain a cleaner
solution of this problem. It is designed after a method used by Sun Microsystems in the C
library of Solaris 2. We follow their name and call this scheme "Name Service Switch"
(NSS). The sources for the "databases" and their lookup order are specified in the
/etc/nsswitch.conf file.
The following databases are available in the NSS:
aliases
Mail aliases, used by sendmail(8). Presently ignored.
ethers Ethernet numbers.
group Groups of users, used by getgrent(3) functions.
hosts Host names and numbers, used by gethostbyname(3) and similar functions.
netgroup
Network wide list of hosts and users, used for access rules. C libraries before
glibc 2.1 only support netgroups over NIS.
networks
Network names and numbers, used by getnetent(3) functions.
passwd User passwords, used by getpwent(3) functions.
protocols
Network protocols, used by getprotoent(3) functions.
publickey
Public and secret keys for Secure_RPC used by NFS and NIS+.
rpc Remote procedure call names and numbers, used by getrpcbyname(3) and similar func-
tions.
services
Network services, used by getservent(3) functions.
shadow Shadow user passwords, used by getspnam(3).
An example /etc/nsswitch.conf (namely, the default used when /etc/nsswitch.conf is miss-
ing):
passwd: compat
group: compat
shadow: compat
hosts: dns [!UNAVAIL=return] files
networks: nis [NOTFOUND=return] files
ethers: nis [NOTFOUND=return] files
protocols: nis [NOTFOUND=return] files
rpc: nis [NOTFOUND=return] files
services: nis [NOTFOUND=return] files
The first column is the database. The rest of the line specifies how the lookup process
works. You can specify the way it works for each database individually.
The configuration specification for each database can contain two different items:
* The service specification like `files', `db', or `nis'.
* The reaction on lookup result like `[NOTFOUND=return]'.
For libc5 with NYS, the allowed service specifications are `files', `nis', and `nisplus'.
For hosts, you could specify `dns' as extra service, for passwd and group `compat', but
not for shadow.
For glibc, you must have a file called /lib/libnss_SERVICE.so.X for every SERVICE you are
using. On a standard installation, you could use `files', `db', `nis', and `nisplus'.
For hosts, you could specify `dns' as extra service, for passwd, group, and shadow `com-
pat'. These services will not be used by libc5 with NYS. The version number X is 1 for
glibc 2.0 and 2 for glibc 2.1.
The second item in the specification gives the user much finer control on the lookup pro-
cess. Action items are placed between two service names and are written within brackets.
The general form is
`[' ( `!'? STATUS `=' ACTION )+ `]'
where
STATUS => success | notfound | unavail | tryagain
ACTION => return | continue
The case of the keywords is insignificant. The STATUS values are the results of a call to
a lookup function of a specific service. They mean:
success
No error occurred and the wanted entry is returned. The default action for this is
`return'.
notfound
The lookup process works ok but the needed value was not found. The default action
is `continue'.
unavail
The service is permanently unavailable. This can either mean the needed file is
not available, or, for DNS, the server is not available or does not allow queries.
The default action is `continue'.
tryagain
The service is temporarily unavailable. This could mean a file is locked or a
server currently cannot accept more connections. The default action is `continue'.
Interaction with +/- syntax (compat mode)
Linux libc5 without NYS does not have the name service switch but does allow the user some
policy control. In /etc/passwd you could have entries of the form +user or +@netgroup
(include the specified user from the NIS passwd map), -user or -@netgroup (exclude the
specified user), and + (include every user, except the excluded ones, from the NIS passwd
map).
You can override certain passwd fields for a particular user from the NIS passwd map by
using the extended form of +user:::::: in /etc/passwd. Non-empty fields override informa-
tion in the NIS passwd map.
Since most people only put a + at the end of /etc/passwd to include everything from NIS,
the switch provides a faster alternative for this case (`passwd: files nis') which doesn't
require the single + entry in /etc/passwd, /etc/group, and /etc/shadow. If this is not
sufficient, the NSS `compat' service provides full +/- semantics. By default, the source
is `nis', but this may be overridden by specifying `nisplus' as source for the pseudo-
databases passwd_compat, group_compat and shadow_compat. These pseudo-databases are only
available in GNU C Library.
FILES
A service named SERVICE is implemented by a shared object library named libnss_SER-
VICE.so.X that resides in /lib.
/etc/nsswitch.conf configuration file
/lib/libnss_compat.so.X implements `compat' source for glibc2
/lib/libnss_db.so.X implements `db' source for glibc2
/lib/libnss_dns.so.X implements `dns' source for glibc2
/lib/libnss_files.so.X implements `files' source for glibc2
/lib/libnss_hesiod.so.X implements `hesiod' source for glibc2
/lib/libnss_nis.so.X implements `nis' source for glibc2
/lib/libnss_nisplus.so.2 implements `nisplus' source for glibc 2.1
NOTES
Within each process that uses nsswitch.conf, the entire file is read only once; if the
file is later changed, the process will continue using the old configuration.
With Solaris, it isn't possible to link programs using the NSS Service statically. With
Linux, this is no problem.
On a Debian system other mail transport agents may or may not ignore the aliases file.
For example, unlike sendmail Exim does not ignore it.
COLOPHON
This page is part of release 3.05 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the
project, and information about reporting bugs, can be found at http://www.ker-
nel.org/doc/man-pages/.
Linux 1999-01-17 NSSWITCH.CONF(5)
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