NFS Services Administrator's Guide

Configuring the Name Service Switch
Syntax of the nsswitch.conf File
Chapter 6274
services Mapping of networking services to port numbers and protocols, sto
r
in the /etc/services file, the NIS services.byname and
services.bynp maps, or the NIS+ services table.
Table 6-3 Name Services Supported by the Name Service Switch
Keyword Name Service Represented by Keyword
files Files in the /etc directory on the local host (/etc/passwd, /etc/hosts
and so on)
nis Network Information Service (NIS)
nisplus Network Information Service Plus (NIS+)
dns Domain Name System (DNS), which is implemented by Berkeley Inter
n
Name Domain (BIND) on HP-UX. See the Installing and Administerin
g
Internet Services manual for more information. The dns keyword may
b
used only on the line beginning with hosts.
compat NIS compatibility mode, used only for passwd and group information. I
you specify compat as a name service, your local /etc/passwd or
/etc/group file will be consulted first, and any lines in the file beginni
n
with plus (+) or minus (-) will direct lookups to NIS, just as they did in
earlier releases.
If you want lookups to go to NIS+ instead of NIS when a plus or minus
encountered in the file, specify compat for passwd or group, and add th
e
following lines to the bottom of your /etc/nsswitch.conf file:
passwd_compat: nisplus
group_compat: nisplus
If you omit these lines, the compat keyword causes lookups to go to NI
S
not NIS+.
Table 6-2 Types of Lookups Controlled by the Name Service Switch
Keyword Type of Information Represented by Keyword