netinfo.subproj/netinfo.5

   1 .TH NETINFO 5 "October 8, 1990" "Apple Computer, Inc."
   2 .SH NAME
   3 netinfo \- network administrative information
   4 .SH DESCRIPTION
   5 NetInfo stores its administration information in a hierarchical database.
   6 The hierarchy is composed of nodes called NetInfo
   7 .I directories.
   8 Each directory may have zero or more NetInfo
   9 .I properties
  10 associated with it.
  11 Each property has a
  12 .I name
  13 and zero or more
  14 .I values.
  15 .PP
  16 This man page describes those directories and properties which have
  17 meaning in the system distributed by Apple. Users and 3rd-parties may
  18 create other directories and properties, which of course cannot be
  19 described here.
  20 .PP
  21 .I Search Policy
  22 .PP
  23 Virtually everything that utilizes NetInfo for lookups adheres to the
  24 following convention. Search the local domain first. If found, return
  25 the answer. Otherwise, try the next level up and so on until the top
  26 of the domain hierarchy is reached. For compatibility with Yellow Pages
  27 and BIND, see
  28 .I lookupd(8).
  29 .PP
  30 .I Database Format
  31 .PP
  32 At the top level, the root directory contains a single property called
  33 .I master.
  34 This properties indicates who is the master of this database, i.e., which
  35 server contains the master copy of the database. The singular value of master
  36 contains two fields, a hostname and a domain tag separated by a '/' which
  37 uniquely identifies the machine and process serving as master of this data.
  38 For example, the entry
  39 .I clothier/network
  40 says that the
  41 .I netinfod(8)
  42 process serving domain tag
  43 .I network
  44 on the machine
  45 .I clothier
  46 controls the master copy of the database.
  47 .PP
  48 For added security, a second property can be installed in the root directory
  49 to limit who can connect to the domain. By default, anybody can connect to
  50 the domain, which would allow them to read anything that is there (writes are
  51 protected however). If this default is undesirable, a property called
  52 .I trusted_networks
  53 should be enabled in the root directory. Its values should be the network
  54 (or subnet) addresses which are assumed to contain trusted machines which
  55 are allowed to connect to the domain. Any other clients are assumed to be
  56 untrustworthy. A name may be used instead of an address. If a name is given,
  57 then that name should be listed as a subdirectory of "/networks" within the
  58 same domain and resolve to the appropriate network address.
  59 .PP
  60 At the second level, the following directories exist which have the
  61 following names (property named "name" has these values):
  62 .PP
  63 .RS
  64 .I aliases
  65 .LP
  66 .I groups
  67 .LP
  68 .I machines
  69 .LP
  70 .I mounts
  71 .LP
  72 .I networks
  73 .LP
  74 .I printers
  75 .LP
  76 .I protocols
  77 .LP
  78 .I rpcs
  79 .LP
  80 .I services
  81 .LP
  82 .I users
  83 .RE
  84 .PP
  85 These directories contain, for the most part, only the single property
  86 named "name". The exception is the "machines" directory which  contains
  87 other properties having to do with automatic host installation. These
  88 properties are the following:
  89 .PP
  90 .RS
  91 "promiscuous" - if it exists, the bootpd(8) daemon is
  92 promiscuous. Has no value.
  93 .LP
  94 "assignable_ipaddr" - a range of IP addresses to automatically assigned,
  95 specified with two values as endpoints.
  96 .LP
  97 "configuration_ipaddr" - the temporary IP address given to unknown machines in the process of booting.
  98 .LP
  99 "default_bootfile" - the default bootfile to assign to a new machine.
 100 .LP
 101 "net_passwd" - optional property. If it exists, it's the encrypted password
 102 for protecting automatic host installations.
 103 .RE
 104 .PP
 105 The directory "/aliases" contains directories which refer to individual
 106 mailing aliases. The relevant properties are:
 107 .PP
 108 .RS
 109 "name" - the name of the alias
 110 .LP
 111 "members" - a list of values, each of which is a member of this alias.
 112 .RE
 113 .PP
 114 The directory "/groups" contains directories which refer to individual
 115 system groups. The relevant properties are:
 116 .PP
 117 .RS
 118 "name" - the name of the system group
 119 .LP
 120 "passwd" - the associated password
 121 .LP
 122 "gid" - the associated group id
 123 .LP
 124 "users" - a list of values, each of which is a user who is a member
 125 of this system group.
 126 .RE
 127 .PP
 128 The directory "/machines" contains directories which refer to individual
 129 machines. The relevant properties are:
 130 .PP
 131 .RS
 132 "name" - the name of this machine. This property can have multiple values
 133 if the machine name has aliases.
 134 .LP
 135 "ip_address" - the Internet Protocol address of the machine. This property
 136 can have multiple values if the machine has multiple IP addresses. Note
 137 that the address MUST be stored in decimal-dot notation with no leading
 138 zeroes.
 139 .LP
 140 "en_address" - the Ethernet address of the machine. Note that the address
 141 MUST be stored in standard 6 field hex Ethernet notation, with no leading
 142 zeros. For example, "0:0:f:0:7:5a" is a valid Ethernet address,
 143 "00:00:0f:00:07:5a" is not.
 144 .LP
 145 "serves" - a list of values, each of which is information about which
 146 NetInfo domains this machine serves. Each value has the format
 147 .I domain-name/domain-tag.
 148 The domain name is the external name of the domain served by this machine as
 149 seen from this level of hierarchy. The domain tag is the internal
 150 name associated with the actual process on the machine that serves this
 151 information.
 152 .LP
 153 "bootfile" - the name of the kernel that this machine will use by
 154 default when NetBooting.
 155 .LP
 156 "bootparams" - a list of values, each of which is a Bootparams protocol
 157 key-value pair. For example, "root=parrish:/" has the Bootparams key
 158 "root" and Bootparams value "parrish:/".
 159 .LP
 160 "netgroups" - a list of values, each of which is the name of a netgroup
 161 of which this machine is a member.
 162 .RE
 163 .PP
 164 The directory "/mounts" contains directories which refer to filesystems.
 165 The relevant properties are:
 166 .PP
 167 .RS
 168 "name" - the name of the filesytem. For example, "/dev/od0a" or
 169 "papazian:/".
 170 .LP
 171 "dir" - the directory upon which this filesystem is mounted.
 172 .LP
 173 "type" - the filesystem type of the mount
 174 .LP
 175 "opts" - a list of values, each of which is a
 176 .I mount(8)
 177 option associated with the mounting of this filesystem.
 178 .LP
 179 "passno" - pass number on parallel
 180 .I fsck(8)
 181 .LP
 182 "freq" - dump frequency, in days.
 183 .RE
 184 .PP
 185 The directory "/networks" contains directories which refer to Internet
 186 networks. The relevant properties are:
 187 .PP
 188 .RS
 189 "name" - the name of the network. If the network has aliases, there
 190 may be more than one value for this property.
 191 .LP
 192 "address" - the network number of this network. The value MUST be
 193 in decimal-dot notation with no leading zeroes.
 194 .RE
 195 .PP
 196 The directory "/printers" contains directories which refer to
 197 printer entries. The relevant properties are:
 198 .PP
 199 .RS
 200 "name" - the name of the printer. If the printer has alias, this
 201 property will have multiple values.
 202 .LP
 203 "lp", "sd", etc. - the names of
 204 .I printcap(5)
 205 properties associated with this printer. If the value associated with
 206 the property name is numeric, the number has a leading "#" prepended
 207 to it.
 208 .RE
 209 .PP
 210 The directory "/protocols" contains directories which refer to
 211 transport protocols. The relevant properties are:
 212 .PP
 213 .RS
 214 "name" - the name of the protocol. If the protocol has aliases, the
 215 property will have multiple values.
 216 .LP
 217 "number" - the associated protocol number.
 218 .RE
 219 .PP
 220 The directory "/services" contains directories which refer to
 221 ARPA services. The relevant properties are:
 222 .PP
 223 .RS
 224 "name" - the name of the service. If the service has aliases, the
 225 property will have multiple values.
 226 .LP
 227 "protocol" - the name of the protocol upon which the service runs.
 228 If the service runs on multiple protocols, this property will have
 229 multiple values.
 230 .LP
 231 "port" - the associated port number of the service.
 232 .RE
 233 .PP
 234 The directory "/users" contains information which refer to users.
 235 The relevant properties are:
 236 .PP
 237 .RS
 238 "name" - the login name of the user.
 239 .LP
 240 "passwd" - the encrypted password of the user.
 241 .LP
 242 "uid" - the user id of the user.
 243 .LP
 244 "gid" - the default group id of the user.
 245 .LP
 246 "realname" - the real name of the user.
 247 .LP
 248 "home" - the home directory of the user.
 249 .LP
 250 "shell" - the login shell of the user.
 251 .SH "SEE ALSO"
 252 .I aliases(5)
 253 .LP
 254 .I bootparams(5)
 255 .LP
 256 .I bootptab(5)
 257 .LP
 258 .I fstab(5)
 259 .LP
 260 .I group(5)
 261 .LP
 262 .I hosts(5)
 263 .LP
 264 .I lookupd(8)
 265 .LP
 266 .I netinfod(8)
 267 .LP
 268 .I netgroup(5)
 269 .LP
 270 .I networks(5)
 271 .LP
 272 .I passwd(5)
 273 .LP
 274 .I printcap(5)
 275 .LP
 276 .I protocols(5)
 277 .LP
 278 .I services(5)