.TH NETINFO 3 "August 29, 1989" "Apple Computer, Inc."
.SH NAME
netinfo \- library routines for NetInfo calls
.SH SYNOPSIS
\fB#include <netinfo/ni.h>\fR
.SH DESCRIPTION
These calls are the programming interface to NetInfo.  Typically, 
a handle (of type "void *") is allocated through a call to
.I ni_new,
.I ni_open,
or
.I ni_connect.
This handle opens a connection to the given NetInfo domain.  Read calls
may go to either the master or the clone servers, while writes will
always go to the master server.  If the master is unavailable,
no writes can be performed.
The handle is then passed to one of several NetInfo routines for database
operations and then freed using
.I ni_free.
Several utility routines are also supplied which operate on NetInfo data
structures.  These routines don't require NetInfo handles.
.LP
.SH MACROS
.PP
.B NI_INDEX_NULL
.IP
A constant which evaluates to the highest unsigned integer.  It is useful
for indicating something which should go at the end of a list, as opposed
to a smaller value which indicates the precise position at which the insert
should occur.
.PP
\fBNI_INIT\fR(\fIptr\fR)
.IP
Initializes a NetInfo data structure.  It effectively zeros out the structure
referred to by
.I ptr.
This macro is useful for indicating an empty list or NULL value with one
of the many NetInfo data structures.
.SH "DATATYPES AND ASSOCIATED UTILITY ROUTINES"
.PP
.B ni_status
.IP
The result code of most NetInfo routines.
.PP
const char *\fBni_error\fR(ni_status \fIstatus\fR)
.IP
Returns the error string associated with the given NetInfo status.
.PP
.B ni_index
.IP
An index into a NetInfo list.
.PP
.B ni_id
.IP
NetInfo directories are identified through the
.I ni_id
data structure.  It records the ID of the directory in the
.I nii_object
field and the instance of the directory in the
.I nii_instance
field.  The instance indicates which version of the directory is being
operated on and is only relevant for writes.  Each time a write is
performed, the instance is incremented to reflect the new version.  If
the instance given does not match the current instance of the directory,
the error NI_STALE is returned, indicating a stale ID.  All NetInfo
routines which operate on directories will return the latest value of
the instance.
.PP
.B ni_name
.IP
A NetInfo name.  It is equivalent to a C string.
.PP 
ni_name \fBni_name_dup\fR(const ni_name \fIname\fR)
.IP
Returns a mallocated copy of a NetInfo name.
.PP
void \fBni_name_free\fR(ni_name *\fInamep\fR)
.IP
Frees a NetInfo name.  The pointer is converted to NULL.  A NULL pointer
will not be freed.
.PP
int \fBni_name_match\fR(const ni_name \fIname1\fR, const ni_name \fIname2\fR)
.IP
Compares two NetInfo names for equality.  Returns non-zero for success,
zero for failure.
.PP
.B ni_namelist
.IP
A list of NetInfo names.
.PP
ni_namelist \fBni_namelist_dup\fR(const ni_namelist \fInl\fR)
.IP
Returns a mallocated duplicate of a NetInfo namelist.
.PP
void \fBni_namelist_free\fR(ni_namelist *\fInl\fR)
.IP
Frees a NetInfo namelist.  The namelist structure is zeroed.  Zeroed
namelists will not be freed.
.PP
void \fBni_namelist_insert\fR(ni_namelist *\fInl\fR, const ni_name \fIname\fR, ni_index \fIwhere\fR)
.IP
Duplicates and inserts the given name at the given location into the namelist.
.PP
void \fBni_namelist_delete\fR(ni_namelist *\fInl\fR, ni_index \fIwhere\fR)
.IP
Deletes and frees the name at the given location in the namelist.
.PP
ni_index \fBni_namelist_match\fR(const ni_namelist \fInl\fR, const ni_name \fIname\fR)
.IP
If the name is in the given namelist, the first index of its occurrence
is returned.  Otherwise, NI_INDEX_NULL is returned indicating failure.
.PP
.B ni_property
.IP
A NetInfo property.  It contains a name and a namelist of associated values.
.PP 
ni_property \fBni_prop_dup\fR(const ni_property \fIprop\fR)
.IP
Returns a mallocated duplicate of the given NetInfo property.
.PP
void \fBni_prop_free\fR(ni_property *\fIprop\fR)
.IP
Frees and zeros the NetInfo property.  Zeroed properties will not be freed
again.
.PP
.B ni_proplist
.IP
A list of NetInfo properties.
.PP
void \fBni_proplist_insert\fR(ni_proplist *\fIpl\fR, const ni_property \fIprop\fR, ni_index \fIwhere\fR)
.IP
Duplicates and inserts the given property at the given location into the given property
list.
.PP
void \fBni_proplist_delete\fR(ni_proplist *\fIpl\fR, ni_index \fIwhere\fR)
.IP
Frees and deletes the property at the given location in the property list.
.PP
ni_index \fBni_proplist_match\fR(const ni_proplist \fIpl\fR, const ni_name \fIname\fR, const ni_name \fIval\fR)
.IP
Returns the location in the property list of the first property with a name
of 
.I name
and having value
.I val.
NI_INDEX_NULL is returned on failure.
If NULL is the \fIvalue\fR argument,
\fBni_proplist_match\fR will match on only the \fIname\fR argument.
.PP
ni_proplist \fBni_proplist_dup\fR(const ni_proplist \fIpl\fR)
.IP
Returns a mallocated duplicate property list.
.PP
void \fBni_proplist_free\fR(ni_proplist *\fIpl\fR)
.IP
Frees and zeroes the property list.  A zeroed property will not be freed again.
.PP
.B ni_idlist
.IP
A list of NetInfo indices (usually directory ID's).
.PP
void \fBni_idlist_free\fR(ni_idlist *\fIidl\fR)
.IP
Frees and zeroes the given ID list.  A zeroed ID list will not be freed again.
.PP
.B ni_entry
.IP
An entry in a NetInfo directory.  It contains the ID of the directory and
a list of values assocated with whatever property was requested in the
.I ni_list
routine.  The list may be NULL, indicating that there is not associated
property for this directory.
.PP
.B ni_entrylist
.IP
A list of NetInfo entries.
.PP
void \fBni_entrylist_free\fR(ni_entrylist *\fIentries\fR)
.IP
Frees and zeros the given entry list.  A zeroed entry list will not be
freed again.
.LP
.SH "ROUTINES"
.PP
ni_status \fBni_addrtag\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, struct sockaddr_in *\fIaddr\fR, ni_name *\fItag\fR)
.IP
Returns the address and domain tag associated with the connected
NetInfo handle.
.PP
ni_status \fBni_children\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, ni_id *\fIdir\fR, ni_idlist *\fIidlist\fR)
.IP
Lists the children ID's (subdirectories) of the given directory.
.PP
void *\fBni_connect\fR(struct sockaddr_in *\fIaddr\fR, ni_name \fItag\fR)
.IP
Returns a NetInfo handle to the NetInfo domain at the given address
and domain tag.  Returns NULL on failure.
.PP
ni_status \fBni_create\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, ni_id *\fIparent\fR, ni_proplist \fIprops\fR, ni_id *\fIchild\fR, ni_index \fIwhere\fR)
.IP
Creates a new directory at the given index initialized with the given 
properties.
.PP
ni_status \fBni_createname\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, ni_id *\fIdir\fR, ni_index \fIprop_index\fR, ni_name \fIname\fR, ni_index \fIval_index\fR)
.IP
Inserts the name into the value list of the given directory at the property
indexed by prop_index and value list location val_index.
.PP
ni_status \fBni_createprop\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, ni_id *\fIdir\fR, ni_property \fIprop\fR, ni_index \fIwhere\fR)
.IP
Creates a new property at the given index in the given directory.
.PP
ni_status \fBni_destroy\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, ni_id *\fIparent\fR, ni_id \fIchild\fR)
.IP
Destroys the directory child in the given parent directory.  Both instance
must be the latest values or the error NI_STALE is returned.
.PP
ni_status \fBni_destroyname\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, ni_id *\fIdir\fR, ni_index \fIprop_index\fR, ni_index \fIval_index\fR)
.IP
Destroys a property value in the given directory at the given prop_index and
value-list val_index.
.PP
ni_status \fBni_destroyprop\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, ni_id *\fIdir\fR, ni_index \fIwhere\fR)
.IP
Destroys the property at property index
.I where
in the given directory.
.PP
ni_status \fBni_fancyopen\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, ni_name \fIdomain\fR, void **\fIrethandle\fR, ni_fancyopenargs *\fIargs\fR)
.PP
.nf
typedef struct ni_fancyopenargs {
	int rtimeout; 
	int wtimeout; 
	int abort;    
	int needwrite;
} ni_fancyopenargs;
.fi
.IP
A fancier version of ni_open which allows one to set
various attributes on the the returned handle. See 
.I ni_setreadtimeout(), 
.I ni_setwritetimeout(), 
.I ni_setabort()
and 
.I ni_needwrite()
for descriptions of the fields 
in the ni_fancyopenargs structure. A 0 in the 
rtimeout or wtimeout field indicates the 
default timeout should be used.
.PP
void \fBni_free\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR)
.IP
Frees a NetInfo handle and closes any associated connections.
.PP
ni_status \fBni_list\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, ni_id *\fIdir\fR , ni_name \fIname\fR, ni_entrylist *\fIentries\fR)
.IP
Lists all the subdirectories of the given directory along with any associated
values they may have for the property 
.I name.
If a subdirectory doesn't have the property \fIname\fR,
the entry is still returned but with a NULL property list.
.PP
ni_status \fBni_listprops\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, ni_id *\fIdir\fR, ni_namelist *\fInl\fR)
.IP
Returns the list of property names associated with the given directory.
.PP
ni_status \fBni_lookup\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, ni_id *\fIdir\fR, ni_name \fIname\fR, ni_name \fIval\fR, ni_idlist *\fIfound\fR)
.IP
Returns a list of subdirectories which satisfy the relation 
.I name
equals
.I val.
.PP
ni_status \fBni_lookupprop\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, ni_id *\fIdir\fR, ni_name \fIname\fR, ni_namelist *\fIval\fR)
.IP
Returns the values associated with the property named 
.I name
in the given directory.
.PP
ni_status \fBni_lookupread\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, ni_id *\fIdirid\fR, ni_name \fIpropname\fR, ni_name \fIpropval\fR, ni_proplist *\fIprops\fR)
.IP
Looks up the subdirectory given the 
.I (propname, propval\) 
pair
and returns the subdirectory's properties. This call is equivalent to 
an 
.I ni_lookup() 
followed by an 
.I ni_read().
.PP
void \fBni_needwrite\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, int \fIneedwrite\fR)
.IP
Indicates whether subsequent calls will need to write to a 
netinfo server. By default, the flag is off and the netinfo 
library will automatically switch to a server capable of 
writing whenever a write call occurs. However, since writes
may take some time to reach the clone server, one could read
stale information from a clone server and then attempt to 
write the master based upon the stale information. Setting 
.I needwrite
will lock the handle onto the master netinfo server even for 
reads to prevent this from happening.
.PP
ni_status \fBni_open\fR(void *\fIrelativeto\fR, ni_name \fIdomain\fR, void **\fIresult\fR)
.IP
Opens a connection to the NetInfo domain 
.I domain.
The returned handle is opened relative to the domain specified in the
.I relativeto.
This handle may be passed as NULL, indicating relative to the local
NetInfo domain.  The path may contain "/"s to indicate a multilevel 
search and may also be "." or ".." to indicate the current domain or
parent domain, respectively.
.PP
ni_status \fBni_parent\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, ni_id *\fIdir\fR, ni_index *\fIparent_id\fR)
.IP
Returns the parent ID of the given directory.
.PP
ni_status \fBni_pathsearch\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, ni_id *\fIdir\fR, ni_name \fIpath\fR)
.IP
Does a multilevel lookup on a directory, relative to the given directory
ID.  The path may contain "/"s to separative directory components.  "="s
are used to specify relations and both may be escaped using "\\"s.  For
example, to find the directory associated with the superuser, you may
specify (relative to the root directory) "/name=users/uid=0".  Note that
the equal signs are not mandatory and will default to "name=" if none
are specified.  In the previous example, "/users/uid=0" would accomplish
the same result.
.PP
ni_status \fBni_read\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, ni_id *\fIdir\fR, ni_proplist *\fIprops\fR)
.IP
Reads all of the properties of the given directory.
.PP
ni_status \fBni_readname\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, ni_id *\fIdir\fR, ni_index \fIprop_index\fR, ni_index \fIval_index\fR, ni_name *\fIvalue\fR)
.IP
Reads a value from a property in the given directory.  The value is indexed
by property index 
.I prop_index
and value index
.I val_index.
.PP
ni_status \fBni_readprop\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, ni_id *\fIdir\fR, ni_index \fIprop_index\fr, ni_namelist *\fInl\fR)
.IP
Reads the value-list associated with the given property, indexed by
.I prop_index.
.PP
ni_status \fBni_renameprop\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, ni_id *\fIdir\fR, ni_index \fIprop_index\fR, ni_name \fInewname\fR)
.IP
Renames the property indexed by
.I prop_index
to the new name
.I newname.
.PP
ni_status \fBni_resync\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR)
.IP
Attempts to resynchronize the clone servers with the master copy of
the database.
.PP
ni_status \fBni_root\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, ni_id *\fIdir\fR)
.IP
Returns the directory ID of the root of the directory tree.
.PP
ni_status \fBni_self\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, ni_id *\fIdir\fR)
.IP
Returns the directory ID of the given directory.  Simply refreshes the
instance field to the latest value.
.PP
void \fBni_setabort\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, int \fIshouldabort\fR)
.IP
By default, netinfo calls will try forever until an answer 
is returned from a server. 
.I ni_setabort
 allows one to have 
netinfo return failure upon the first timeout or other failure.
.PP
ni_status \fBni_setpassword\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, ni_name \fIpassword\fR)
.IP
Sets the password for the session to
.I password.  
By default, no password is sent.
.PP
void \fBni_setreadtimeout\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, int \fIseconds\fR)
.IP
Sets the timeout associated with reads on netinfo. The timeout
is only a hint and the effective timeout may be longer. Note
that calls will not abort even if a timeout is set unless the
abort flag has been set (see 
.I ni_setabort()).
.PP
ni_status \fBni_setuser\fr(void *\fIhandle\fR, ni_name \fIusername\fR)
.IP
Changes the username associated with the session.  By default, the username
is the one associated with the user-ID that was used during the UNIX login
process.
.PP
void \fBni_setwritetimeout\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, int \fIseconds\fR)
.IP
Sets the timeout associated with writes on netinfo. The timeout
is only a hint and the effective timeout may be a longer. Note
that calls will not abort even if a timeout is set unless the
abort flag has been set (see 
.I ni_setabort()).
.PP
ni_status \fBni_statistics\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, ni_proplist *\fIstatistics\fR)
.IP
Returns various statistics from the server.
.PP
ni_status \fBni_write\fR(void *\fIhandle\fR, ni_id *\fIdir\fR, ni_proplist \fIprops\fR)
.IP
Writes a new property list to the directory.
.PP
ni_status \fBni_writename\fr(void *\fIhandle\fR, ni_id *\fIdir\fR, ni_index \fIprop_index\fr, ni_index \fIname_index\fR, ni_name \fIval\fR)
.IP
Writes a new property value to the property indexed by
.I prop_index
and value indexed by
.I val_index.
.PP
ni_status \fBni_writeprop\fr(void *\fIhandle\fR, ni_id *\fIdir\fR, ni_index \fIprop_index\fR, ni_namelist \fIvalues\fR) 
.IP
Writes a new value list to the property indexed by
.I prop_index.
It is allowable to have more than one property with the same name.
.IP