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47 .\" Id: irs.conf.man5,v 1.2 2009/01/21 00:12:34 each Exp
54 .Nd Information Retrieval System configuration file
60 functions are a set of routines in the C library which provide access to
62 The maps that irs currently controls are the following: passwd, group,
63 services, protocols, hosts, networks and netgroup.
64 When a program first calls a function that accesses one of these maps,
65 the irs configuration file is read,
66 and the source of each map is determined for the life of the process.
68 If this file does not exist,
69 the irs routines default to using local sources for all information,
70 with the exception of the host and networks maps,
71 which use the Domain Name System (DNS).
73 Each record in the file consists of one line.
74 A record consists of a map-name, an access-method and possibly a (comma
75 delimited) set of options,
76 separated by tabs or spaces.
77 Blank lines, and text between a # and a newline are ignored.
80 .Bd -literal -offset indent
81 Map name Information in map
82 ========= ==================================
83 passwd User authentication information
84 group User group membership information
85 services Network services directory
86 protocols Network protocols directory
87 hosts Network hosts directory
88 networks Network "network names" directory
89 netgroup Network "host groups" directory
92 Available access methods:
93 .Bd -literal -offset indent
94 Access method Description
95 ============= =================================================
96 local Use a local file, usually in /etc
97 dns Use the domain name service (includes hesiod)
98 nis Use the Sun-compatible Network Information Service
99 irp Use the IRP daemon on the localhost.
103 .Bd -literal -offset indent
105 ======== ================================================
106 continue don't stop searching if you can't find something
107 merge don't stop searching if you CAN find something
110 The continue option creates
111 .Dq "union namespaces"
112 whereby subsequent access methods of the same map type can be tried
113 if a name cannot be found using earlier access methods.
114 This can be quite confusing in the case of host names,
115 since the name to address and address to name mappings can be visibly
116 asymmetric even though the data used by any given access method is
117 entirely consistent. This behavior is, therefore, not the default.
119 The merge option only affects lookups in the groups map.
120 If set, subsequent access methods will be tried in order to cause
121 local users to appear in NIS (or other remote) groups in addition
124 .Bd -literal -offset indent
125 # Get password entries from local file, or failing that, NIS
126 passwd local continue
129 # Build group membership from both local file, and NIS.
130 group local continue,merge
133 # Services comes from just the local file.
138 # Hosts comes first from DNS, failing that, the local file
142 # Networks comes first from the local file, and failing
143 # that the, irp daemon
144 networks local continue
150 If a local user needs to be in the local host's
152 group but not in every host's
154 group, put them in the local host's
162 .Bd -literal -offset indent
163 group local continue,merge
167 NIS takes a long time to time out.
168 Especially for hosts if you use the
170 option to your server's
174 It is important that the
176 file contain an entry for each map.
177 If a map is not mentioned in the
179 file, all queries to that map will fail.
181 The classic NIS mechanism for specifying union namespaces is to add an entry
182 to a local map file whose name is ``+''. In IRS, this is done via ``continue''
183 and/or ``merge'' map options. While this results in a small incompatibility
184 when local map files are imported from non-IRS systems to IRS systems, there
185 are compensating advantages in security and configurability.
187 .Bl -tag -width /etc/irs.confXXXX -compact