Operation Manual
Table 21.8
Conguration Options for NSS “Databases”
directly access les, for example, /etc/aliasesfiles
access via a database
db
NIS, see also Chapter 3, Using NIS (↑Security Guide)
nis, nisplus
can only be used as an extension for hosts and
networks
dns
can only be used as an extension for passwd, shadow
and group
compat
/etc/nscd.conf
This le is used to congure nscd (name service cache daemon). See the nscd(8)
and nscd.conf(5) man pages. By default, the system entries of passwd and
groups are cached by nscd. This is important for the performance of directory services,
like NIS and LDAP, because otherwise the network connection needs to be used for
every access to names or groups. hosts is not cached by default, because the mecha-
nism in nscd to cache hosts makes the local system unable to trust forward and reverse
lookup checks. Instead of asking nscd to cache names, set up a caching DNS server.
If the caching for passwd is activated, it usually takes about fteen seconds until a
newly added local user is recognized. Reduce this waiting time by restarting nscd with
the command rcnscd restart.
/etc/HOSTNAME
This contains the fully qualied hostname with the domain name attached. This le is
read by several scripts while the machine is booting. It must contain only one line (in
which the hostname is set).
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