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NETGROUP(5)               NetBSD Programmer's Manual               NETGROUP(5)


NAME

     netgroup - defines network groups


SYNOPSIS

     netgroup


DESCRIPTION

     The netgroup file specifies ``netgroups'', which are sets of (host, user,
     domain) tuples that are to be given similar network access.

     Each line in the file consists of a netgroup name followed by a list of
     the members of the netgroup.  Each member can be either the name of an-
     other netgroup or a specification of a tuple as follows:

           (host, user, domain)

     where the host, user, and domain are character string names for the cor-
     responding component.  Any of the comma separated fields may be empty to
     specify a ``wildcard'' value or may consist of the string ``-'' to speci-
     fy ``no valid value''.  The members of the list may be separated by
     whitespace; the ``\'' character may be used at the end of a line to spec-
     ify line continuation.  The functions specified in getnetgrent(3) should
     normally be used to access the netgroup database.

     If `files' is specified for the `netgroup' database in nsswitch.conf(5),
     (or no `netgroup' entry is specified), then these functions operate on
     the db(3) version of the netgroup (netgroup.db) file which can be gener-
     ated using netgroup_mkdb(8).  If `nis' is specified then the NIS maps
     `netgroup', `netgroup.byhost', and `netgroup.byuser' are used.

     Lines that begin with a # are treated as comments.


FILES

     /etc/netgroup.db  the netgroup database.


SEE ALSO

     getnetgrent(3), exports(5), nsswitch.conf(5), netgroup_mkdb(8)


COMPATIBILITY

     The file format is compatible with that of various vendors, however it
     appears that not all vendors use an identical format.


BUGS

     The interpretation of access restrictions based on the member tuples of a
     netgroup is left up to the various network applications.

NetBSD 1.5.2                   January 16, 1999                              1