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f387a294 1.\" Copyright (C) 2006 Red Hat, Inc. All rights reserved.
a4d10b2b 2.\" Author: Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com>
f387a294 3.\"
ef06249a 4.\" %%%LICENSE_START(GPLv2_MISC)
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5.\" This copyrighted material is made available to anyone wishing to use,
6.\" modify, copy, or redistribute it subject to the terms and conditions of the
7.\" GNU General Public License v.2.
8.\"
9.\" This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
10.\" ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
11.\" FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for
12.\" more details.
13.\"
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14.\" You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
15.\" License along with this manual; if not, see
16.\" <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
8ff7380d 17.\" %%%LICENSE_END
f387a294 18.\"
366ffff4 19.TH NSS 5 2013-02-13 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
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20.SH NAME
21nss \- Name Service Switch configuration file
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22.SH DESCRIPTION
23Each call to a function which retrieves data from a system database
24like the password or group database is handled by the Name Service
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25Switch implementation in the GNU C library.
26The various services
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27provided are implemented by independent modules, each of which
28naturally varies widely from the other.
29.PP
30The default implementations coming with the GNU C library are by
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31default conservative and do not use unsafe data.
32This might be very costly in some situations, especially when the databases
33are large.
34Some modules allow the system administrator to request
35taking shortcuts if these are known to be safe.
36It is then the system administrator's responsibility to ensure the assumption
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37is correct.
38.PP
39There are other modules where the implementation changed over time.
c9978c0d 40If an implementation used to sacrifice speed for memory consumption,
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41it might create problems if the preference is switched.
42.PP
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43The
44.I /etc/default/nss
45file contains a number of variable assignments.
46Each variable controls the behavior of one or more
47NSS modules.
48White spaces are ignored.
49Lines beginning with \(aq#\(aq
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50are treated as comments.
51.PP
52The variables currently recognized are:
53.TP
54\fBNETID_AUTHORITATIVE =\fR \fITRUE\fR|\fIFALSE\fR
55If set to TRUE, the NIS backend for the
56.BR initgroups (3)
57function will accept the information
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58from the
59.I netid.byname
60NIS map as authoritative.
61This can speed up the function significantly if the
62.I group.byname
63map is large.
64The content of the
65.I netid.byname
66map is used \fBas is\fR.
67The system administrator has to make sure it is correctly generated.
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68.TP
69\fBSERVICES_AUTHORITATIVE =\fR \fITRUE\fR|\fIFALSE\fR
70If set to TRUE, the NIS backend for the
71.BR getservbyname (3)
72and
73.BR getservbyname_r (3)
dd2babc1 74functions will assume that the
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75.I services.byservicename
76NIS map exists and is authoritative, particularly
f387a294 77that it contains both keys with /proto and without /proto for both
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78primary service names and service aliases.
79The system administrator has to make sure it is correctly generated.
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80.TP
81\fBSETENT_BATCH_READ =\fR \fITRUE\fR|\fIFALSE\fR
82If set to TRUE, the NIS backend for the
83.BR setpwent (3)
84and
85.BR setgrent (3)
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86functions will read the entire database at once and then
87hand out the requests one by one from memory with every corresponding
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88.BR getpwent (3)
89or
90.BR getgrent (3)
b887a9d2 91call respectively.
2b9b829d 92Otherwise, each
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93.BR getpwent (3)
94or
95.BR getgrent (3)
b887a9d2 96call might result in a network communication with the server to get
f387a294 97the next entry.
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98.SH FILES
99\fI/etc/default/nss\fR
f387a294 100.SH EXAMPLE
b887a9d2 101The default configuration corresponds to the following configuration file:
2dad4c59 102.PP
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103.in +4n
104.EX
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105NETID_AUTHORITATIVE=FALSE
106SERVICES_AUTHORITATIVE=FALSE
107SETENT_BATCH_READ=FALSE
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108.EE
109.in
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110.\" .SH AUTHOR
111.\" Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com>
b072a788 112.\"
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113.SH SEE ALSO
114\fInsswitch.conf\fR