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REVNETGROUP(8)         DragonFly System Manager's Manual        REVNETGROUP(8)


NAME

     revnetgroup -- generate reverse netgroup data


SYNOPSIS

     revnetgroup -u [-f netgroup_file]
     revnetgroup -h [-f netgroup_file]


DESCRIPTION

     Revnetgroup processes the contents of a file in netgroup(5) format into
     what is called ``reverse netgroup'' form. That is, where the original
     file shows netgroup memberships in terms of which members reside in a
     particular group, the reverse netgroup format specifies what groups are
     associated with a particular member. This information is used to generate
     the netgroup.byuser and netgroup.byhosts NIS maps. These reverse netgroup
     maps are used to help speed up netgroup lookups, particularly for the
     innetgr() library function.

     For example, the standard /etc/netgroup file may list a netgroup and a
     list of its members. Here, the netgroup is considered the key and the
     member names are the data.  By contrast, the reverse netgroup.byusers
     database lists each unique member as the key and the netgroups to which
     the members belong become the data. Separate databases are created to
     hold information pertaining to users and hosts; this allows netgroup
     username lookups and netgroup hostname lookups to be performed using
     independent keyspaces.

     By constructing these reverse netgroup databases (and the corresponding
     NIS maps) in advance, the getnetgrent(3) library functions are spared
     from having to work out the dependencies themselves on the fly. This is
     important on networks with large numbers of users and hosts, since it can
     take a considerable amount of time to process very large netgroup data-
     bases.

     The revnetgroup command prints its results on the standard output. It is
     usually called only by /var/yp/Makefile when rebuilding the NIS netgroup
     maps.


OPTIONS

     The revnetgroup command supports the following options:

     -u      Generate netgroup.byuser output; only username information in the
             original netgroup file is processed.

     -h      Generate netgroup.byhost output; only hostname information in the
             original netgroup file is processed. (Note at least one of the -u
             or -h flags must be specified.)

     [-f netgroup_file]
             The revnetgroup command uses /etc/netgroup as its default input
             file. The -f flag allows the user to specify an alternate input
             file. Specifying ``-'' as the input file causes revnetgroup to
             read from the standard input.


FILES

     /var/yp/Makefile  the Makefile that calls yp_mkdb and revnetgroup to
                       build the NIS databases
     /etc/netgroup     the default netgroup database file. This file is most
                       often found only on the NIS master server


SEE ALSO

     getnetgrent(3), netgroup(5), yp(8), yp_mkdb(8)


AUTHORS

     Bill Paul <wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu>

DragonFly 3.5                  October 24, 1995                  DragonFly 3.5

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