irs.conf man page on BSDi

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IRS.CONF(5)		    BSD Programmer's Manual		   IRS.CONF(5)

NAME
     irs.conf - Information Retrieval System configuration file

SYNOPSIS
     irs.conf

DESCRIPTION
     The irs(3) functions are a set of routines in the C library which provide
     access to various system maps.  The maps that irs currently controls are
     the following: passwd, group, services, protocols, hosts, networks and
     netgroup.	When a program first calls a function that accesses one of
     these maps, the irs configuration file is read, and the source of each
     map is determined for the life of the process.

     If this file does not exist, the irs routines default to using local
     sources for all information, with the exception of the host and networks
     maps, which use the Domain Name System (DNS).

     Each record in the file consists of one line.  A record consists of a
     map-name, an access-method and possibly a (comma delimited) set of op-
     tions, separated by tabs or spaces.  Blank lines, and text between a #
     and a newline are ignored.

     Available maps:

	   Map name	   Information in map
	   =========	   ==================================
	   passwd	   User authentication information
	   group	   User group membership information
	   services	   Network services directory
	   protocols	   Network protocols directory
	   hosts	   Network hosts directory
	   networks	   Network "network names" directory
	   netgroup	   Network "host groups" directory

     Available access methods:

	   Access method   Description
	   =============   =================================================
	   local	   Use a local file, usually in /etc
	   dns		   Use the domain name service (includes hesiod)
	   nis		   Use the Sun-compatible Network Information Service
	   irp		   Use the IRP daemon on the localhost.

     Available options:

	   Option	   Description
	   ========	   ================================================
	   continue	   don't stop searching if you can't find something
	   merge	   don't stop searching if you CAN find something

     The continue option creates ``union namespaces'' whereby subsequent ac-
     cess methods of the same map type can be tried if a name cannot be found
     using earlier access methods.  This can be quite confusing in the case of
     host names, since the name to address and address to name mappings can be
     visibly asymmetric even though the data used by any given access method
     is entirely consistent.  This behavior is, therefore, not the default.

     The merge option only affects lookups in the groups map.  If set, subse-
     quent access methods will be tried in order to cause local users to ap-
     pear in NIS (or other remote) groups in addition to the local groups.

EXAMPLE
	   # Get password entries from local file, or failing that, NIS
	   passwd	   local   continue
	   passwd	   nis

	   # Build group membership from both local file, and NIS.
	   group	   local   continue,merge
	   group	   nis

	   # Services comes from just the local file.
	   services	   local

	   protocols	   local

	   # Hosts comes first from DNS, failing that, the local file
	   hosts	   dns	   continue
	   hosts	   local

	   # Networks comes first from the local file, and failing
	   # that the, irp daemon
	   networks	   local   continue
	   networks	   irp

	   netgroup	   local

NOTES
     If a local user needs to be in the local host's ``wheel'' group but not
     in every host's ``wheel'' group, put them in the local host's /etc/group
     ``wheel'' entry and set up the ``groups'' portion of your /etc/irs.conf
     file as:

	   group   local   continue,merge
	   group   nis

     NIS takes a long time to time out.	 Especially for hosts if you use the
     -d option to your server's ``ypserv'' daemon.

     It is important that the irs.conf file contain an entry for each map.  If
     a map is not mentioned in the irs.conf file, all queries to that map will
     fail.

     The classic NIS mechanism for specifying union namespaces is to add an
     entry to a local map file whose name is ``+''.  In IRS, this is done via
     ``continue'' and/or ``merge'' map options.	 While this results in a small
     incompatibility when local map files are imported from non-IRS systems to
     IRS systems, there are compensating advantages in security and configura-
     bility.

FILES
     /etc/irs.conf	The file irs.conf resides in /etc.

SEE ALSO
     groups(5),	 hosts(5),  netgroup(5),  networks(5),	passwd(5),
     protocols(5),  services(5)

 BIND			       November 16, 1997			     2
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