1IRS.CONF(5) BSD File Formats Manual IRS.CONF(5)
2
4 irs.conf — Information Retrieval System configuration file
5
7 irs.conf
8
10 The irs(3) functions are a set of routines in the C library which provide
11 access to various system maps. The maps that irs currently controls are
12 the following: passwd, group, services, protocols, hosts, networks and
13 netgroup. When a program first calls a function that accesses one of
14 these maps, the irs configuration file is read, and the source of each
15 map is determined for the life of the process.
16 If this file does not exist, the irs routines default to using local
18 sources for all information, with the exception of the host and networks
19 maps, which use the Domain Name System (DNS).
20 Each record in the file consists of one line. A record consists of a
22 map-name, an access-method and possibly a (comma delimited) set of
23 options, separated by tabs or spaces. Blank lines, and text between a #
24 and a newline are ignored.
25 Available maps:
27 Map name Information in map
29 ========= ==================================
30 passwd User authentication information
31 group User group membership information
32 services Network services directory
33 protocols Network protocols directory
34 hosts Network hosts directory
35 networks Network "network names" directory
36 netgroup Network "host groups" directory
37 Available access methods:
39 Access method Description
41 ============= =================================================
42 local Use a local file, usually in /etc
43 dns Use the domain name service (includes hesiod)
44 nis Use the Sun-compatible Network Information Service
45 irp Use the IRP daemon on the localhost.
46 Available options:
48 Option Description
50 ======== ================================================
51 continue don't stop searching if you can't find something
52 merge don't stop searching if you CAN find something
53 The continue option creates “union namespaces” whereby subsequent access
55 methods of the same map type can be tried if a name cannot be found using
56 earlier access methods. This can be quite confusing in the case of host
57 names, since the name to address and address to name mappings can be vis‐
58 ibly asymmetric even though the data used by any given access method is
59 entirely consistent. This behavior is, therefore, not the default.
60 The merge option only affects lookups in the groups map. If set, subse‐
62 quent access methods will be tried in order to cause local users to
63 appear in NIS (or other remote) groups in addition to the local groups.
64
66 # Get password entries from local file, or failing that, NIS
67 passwd local continue
68 passwd nis
69 # Build group membership from both local file, and NIS.
71 group local continue,merge
72 group nis
73 # Services comes from just the local file.
75 services local
76 protocols local
78 # Hosts comes first from DNS, failing that, the local file
80 hosts dns continue
81 hosts local
82 # Networks comes first from the local file, and failing
84 # that the, irp daemon
85 networks local continue
86 networks irp
87 netgroup local
89
91 If a local user needs to be in the local host's “wheel” group but not in
92 every host's “wheel” group, put them in the local host's /etc/group
93 “wheel” entry and set up the “groups” portion of your /etc/irs.conf file
94 as:
95 group local continue,merge
97 group nis
98 NIS takes a long time to time out. Especially for hosts if you use the
100 -d option to your server's “ypserv” daemon.
101 It is important that the irs.conf file contain an entry for each map. If
103 a map is not mentioned in the irs.conf file, all queries to that map will
104 fail.
105 The classic NIS mechanism for specifying union namespaces is to add an
107 entry to a local map file whose name is ``+''. In IRS, this is done via
108 ``continue'' and/or ``merge'' map options. While this results in a small
109 incompatibility when local map files are imported from non-IRS systems to
110 IRS systems, there are compensating advantages in security and configura‐
111 bility.
112
114 /etc/irs.conf The file irs.conf resides in /etc.
115
117 groups(5), hosts(5), netgroup(5), networks(5), passwd(5), protocols(5),
118 services(5)
119BIND 8.1 November 16, 1997 BIND 8.1