1netgroup(5)                 Linux Reference Manual                 netgroup(5)
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NAME

6       netgroup - specify network groups
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DESCRIPTION

9       The  netgroup file  defines "netgroups", which are sets of (host, user,
10       domain) tuples, used for permission checking when doing remote  mounts,
11       remote logins and remote shells.
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13       Each  line  in  the file consists of a netgroup name followed by a by a
14       list of members, where a member is either another netgroup name,  or  a
15       triple:
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17              (host, user, domain)
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19       where  the  host, user, and domain are character strings for the corre‐
20       sponding components. Any of the three fields can  be  empty,  in  which
21       case  it  specifies  a  "wildcard", or may consist of the string "-" to
22       specify "no valid value". The domain field must  either  be  the  local
23       domain name or empty for the netgroup entry to be used. This field does
24       not limit the netgroup or provide security. The domain field refers  to
25       the  domain in which the triple is valid, not the domain containing the
26       the trusted host.
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28       A gateway machine should be listed  under  all  possible  hostnames  by
29       which it may be recognized:
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31              gateway (server,,) (server-sn,,) (server-bb,,)
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33       The  getnetgrent  functions  should normally be used to access the net‐
34       group database.
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FILES

38       /etc/netgroup
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SEE ALSO

41       getnetgrent(3), exports(5), makedbm(8), ypserv(8)
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WARNINGS

44       The triple (,,domain) allows all users and machines trusted access, and
45       has the same effect as the triple (,,). Use the host and user fields of
46       the triple to restrict the access correctly to a specific set  of  mem‐
47       bers.
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BUGS

50       The Linux libc5 does not query the /etc/netgroup file directly, it only
51       querys the NIS server for the groups. So the netgroup database must  be
52       stored in the form of a hashed dbm database just like the passwd(5) and
53       group(5) databases.
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55       This manpage mentions getnetgrent(3), but it seems that manpage  hasn't
56       been written yet. Since getnetgrent() is part of GNU libc it might also
57       be that it is documented in info format.
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AUTHOR

60       Thorsten Kukuk <kukuk@suse.de>
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64NIS                                May 1999                        netgroup(5)
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