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The file
specifies ‘‘netgroups’’, which are sets of 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 another netgroup or a specification of a tuple as follows: (host,
user, domain) where the and are character string names for the corresponding
component. Any of the comma separated fields may be empty to specify a ‘‘wildcard’’
value or may consist of the string ‘‘-’’ to specify ‘‘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 specify line continuation. The functions specified
in should normally be used to access the database. These functions operate
on the version of the file which can be generated using If that file
is not present, and the system supports then the maps are used. The
maps are also used if the file contains a entry. Lines that begin
with a # are treated as comments.
the netgroup database.
The file format is compatible with that of various vendors,
however it appears that not all vendors use an identical format.
The
interpretation of access restrictions based on the member tuples of a netgroup
is left up to the various network applications.
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