19.5.3 Selections
The databases associated with this switch are:
aliases for sendmail
automount for the automounter
bootparams for bootparamd
ethers for mapping ethernet address to hostnames
group for getting group names
hosts for checking host names
netmasks for ifconfig
networks for Internet network addresses
passwd for checking login entries
protocols for protocol names
publickey for the rpc public key
rpc for the rpc service addresses
services for the network services list
These databases can use the following sources:
files e.g. /etc/hosts, /etc/passwd, etc.
nis NIS
nisplus NIS+
dns Domain Name Service
compat allows use of +/- entries in passwd and group files (for NIS)
A typical nsswitch.conf file is:
passwd: compat files nis
group: files nis
# consult /etc "files" only if nis is down.
hosts: dns nis [NOTFOUND=return] files
networks: nis [NOTFOUND=return] files
protocols: nis [NOTFOUND=return] files
rpc: nis [NOTFOUND=return] files
ethers: nis [NOTFOUND=return] files
netmasks: nis [NOTFOUND=return] files
bootparams: nis [NOTFOUND=return] files
publickey: nis [NOTFOUND=return] files
netgroup: nis
automount files nis
aliases: files nis
# for efficient getservbyname() avoid nis
services: files nis
sendmailvars: files