.\" $NetBSD: irs.conf.5,v 1.1.1.2 2012/09/09 16:07:44 christos Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (C) 2009 Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. ("ISC") .\" .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any .\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above .\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies. .\" .\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND ISC DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH .\" REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY .\" AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL ISC BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, .\" INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM .\" LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE .\" OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR .\" PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. .\" .\" Id: irs.conf.5,v 1.3 2009/01/22 23:49:23 tbox Exp .\" .Dd November 16, 1997 .Dt IRS.CONF 5 .Os BIND 8.1 .Sh NAME .Nm irs.conf .Nd Information Retrieval System configuration file .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm irs.conf .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Xr 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. .Pp 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). .Pp 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 options, separated by tabs or spaces. Blank lines, and text between a # and a newline are ignored. .Pp Available maps: .Bd -literal -offset indent 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 .Ed .Pp Available access methods: .Bd -literal -offset indent 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. .Ed .Pp Available options: .Bd -literal -offset indent Option Description ======== ================================================ continue don't stop searching if you can't find something merge don't stop searching if you CAN find something .Ed .Pp The continue option creates .Dq "union namespaces" whereby subsequent access 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. .Pp The merge option only affects lookups in the groups map. If set, subsequent access methods will be tried in order to cause local users to appear in NIS (or other remote) groups in addition to the local groups. .Sh EXAMPLE .Bd -literal -offset indent # 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 .Ed .Sh NOTES If a local user needs to be in the local host's .Dq wheel group but not in every host's .Dq wheel group, put them in the local host's .Pa /etc/group .Dq wheel entry and set up the .Dq groups portion of your .Pa /etc/irs.conf file as: .Bd -literal -offset indent group local continue,merge group nis .Ed .Pp NIS takes a long time to time out. Especially for hosts if you use the .Fl d option to your server's .Dq ypserv daemon. .Pp It is important that the .Pa irs.conf file contain an entry for each map. If a map is not mentioned in the .Pa irs.conf file, all queries to that map will fail. .Pp 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 configurability. .Sh FILES .Bl -tag -width /etc/irs.confXXXX -compact .It Pa /etc/irs.conf The file .Nm irs.conf resides in .Pa /etc . .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr groups 5 , .Xr hosts 5 , .Xr netgroup 5 , .Xr networks 5 , .Xr passwd 5 , .Xr protocols 5 , .Xr services 5