HP-UX Reference (11i v2 03/08) - 4 File Formats (vol 8)

n
nisfiles(4) nisfiles(4)
NAME
nisfiles - NIS+ database files and directory structure
SYNOPSIS
/var/nis
DESCRIPTION
The Network Information Service Plus (NIS+) uses a memory-based, replicated database. This database
uses a set of files in the
/var/nis directory for checkpointing to stable storage and for maintaining a
transaction log. Additionally, the NIS+ server and client use files in this directory to store binding and
state information.
The NIS+ service implements an authentication and authorization system that is built upon Secure RPC.
In this implementation, the service uses a table named
cred.org_dir.
domain-name to store the pub-
lic and private keys of principals that are authorized to access the NIS+ namespace. It stores group
access information in the subdomain
groups_dir.domain-name as group objects. These two tables
appear as files in the
/var/nis/
hostname directory on the NIS+ server.
Unlike the previous versions of the network information service in NIS+, the information in the tables is
initially loaded into the service from the ASCII files on the server and then updated using NIS+ utilities
(
nistbladm -D). Some sites may wish to periodically regenerate the ASCII files for archival purposes.
To do this, a script should be added in the crontab (1) of the server that lists these tables and creates the
ASCII file from the result.
Note: Except for the
NIS_COLDSTART
and NIS_SHARED_DIRCACHE file, no other files should be mani-
pulated by commands such as cp(1), mv(1) or rm(1). The transaction log file keeps logs of all changes
made, and hence the files cannot be manipulated independently.
The files described below are stored in the
/var/nis directory:
NIS_COLDSTART
This file contains NIS+ directory objects that are to be preloaded into the NIS+ cache at
startup time. This file is usually created at NIS+ installation time. See nisinit (1M) or
nisclient (1M).
NIS_SHARED_DIRCACHE
This file contains the current cache of NIS+ bindings being maintained by the cache manager.
The contents can be viewed with nisshowcache (1M).
hostname
.log
This file contains a transaction log that is maintained by the NIS+ service. It can be viewed
using the nislog (1M) command. This file contains holes. Its apparent size may be a lot higher
than its actual size. There is only one transaction log per server.
hostname
.dict
This file is a dictionary that is used by the NIS+ database to locate its files. It is created by the
default NIS+ database package.
hostname
.dict.log
This is the log file for the database dictionary. When the server is checkpointed (nisping
-C), this file will be deleted.
hostname This directory contains databases that the server uses.
hostname
/root.object
On root servers, this file contains a directory object that describes the root of the name space.
hostname
/parent.object
On root servers, this file contains a directory object that describes the parent namespace. This
file is created by the nisinit (1M) command.
hostname
/table_name
For each table in the directory there will be a file with the same name that stores the informa-
tion about that table. If there are subdirectories within this directory, the database for the
table is stored in the file table_name .subdirectory .
hostname
/table_name.log
This file contains the database log for the table table_name . The log file maintains the state of
individual transactions to each database. When a database has been checkpointed (that is, all
changes have been made to the hostname /table_name stable storage), this log file will be
HP-UX 11i Version 2: August 2003 − 1 − Hewlett-Packard Company Section 4−−215