IRS.CONF(5)

NAME
irs.conf - Information Retrieval System configuration file

SYNOPSIS
irs.conf

DESCRIPTION
The 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.

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).

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.

Available maps:

    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

Available access methods:

    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.

Available options:

    Option		Description
    ========	================================================
    continue        don't stop searching if you can't find something
    merge           don't stop searching if you CAN find something

The continue option creates “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.

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.

EXAMPLE

    # 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

NOTES
If a local user needs to be in the local host's “wheel” group but not in every host's “wheel” group, put them in the local host's /etc/group “wheel” entry and set up the “groups” portion of your /etc/irs.conf file as:

    group   local   continue,merge
    group   nis

NIS takes a long time to time out. Especially for hosts if you use the -d option to your server's “ypserv” daemon.

It is important that the irs.conf file contain an entry for each map. If a map is not mentioned in the irs.conf file, all queries to that map will fail.

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.

FILES
/etc/irs.conf
    The file irs.conf resides in /etc.

SEE ALSO
groups(5), hosts(5), netgroup(5), networks(5), passwd(5), protocols(5), services(5)