1IRS.CONF(5) BSD File Formats Manual IRS.CONF(5) 2 3NNAAMMEE 4 iirrss..ccoonnff - Information Retrieval System configuration file 5 6SSYYNNOOPPSSIISS 7 iirrss..ccoonnff 8 9DDEESSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONN 10 The irs(3) functions are a set of routines in the C library which provide 11 access to various system maps. The maps that irs currently controls are 12 the following: passwd, group, services, protocols, hosts, networks and 13 netgroup. When a program first calls a function that accesses one of 14 these maps, the irs configuration file is read, and the source of each 15 map is determined for the life of the process. 16 17 If this file does not exist, the irs routines default to using local 18 sources for all information, with the exception of the host and networks 19 maps, which use the Domain Name System (DNS). 20 21 Each record in the file consists of one line. A record consists of a 22 map-name, an access-method and possibly a (comma delimited) set of 23 options, separated by tabs or spaces. Blank lines, and text between a # 24 and a newline are ignored. 25 26 Available maps: 27 28 Map name Information in map 29 ========= ================================== 30 passwd User authentication information 31 group User group membership information 32 services Network services directory 33 protocols Network protocols directory 34 hosts Network hosts directory 35 networks Network "network names" directory 36 netgroup Network "host groups" directory 37 38 Available access methods: 39 40 Access method Description 41 ============= ================================================= 42 local Use a local file, usually in /etc 43 dns Use the domain name service (includes hesiod) 44 nis Use the Sun-compatible Network Information Service 45 irp Use the IRP daemon on the localhost. 46 47 Available options: 48 49 Option Description 50 ======== ================================================ 51 continue don’t stop searching if you can’t find something 52 merge don’t stop searching if you CAN find something 53 54 The continue option creates “union namespaces” whereby subsequent access 55 methods of the same map type can be tried if a name cannot be found using 56 earlier access methods. This can be quite confusing in the case of host 57 names, since the name to address and address to name mappings can be vis‐ 58 ibly asymmetric even though the data used by any given access method is 59 entirely consistent. This behavior is, therefore, not the default. 60 61 The merge option only affects lookups in the groups map. If set, subse‐ 62 quent access methods will be tried in order to cause local users to 63 appear in NIS (or other remote) groups in addition to the local groups. 64 65EEXXAAMMPPLLEE 66 # Get password entries from local file, or failing that, NIS 67 passwd local continue 68 passwd nis 69 70 # Build group membership from both local file, and NIS. 71 group local continue,merge 72 group nis 73 74 # Services comes from just the local file. 75 services local 76 77 protocols local 78 79 # Hosts comes first from DNS, failing that, the local file 80 hosts dns continue 81 hosts local 82 83 # Networks comes first from the local file, and failing 84 # that the, irp daemon 85 networks local continue 86 networks irp 87 88 netgroup local 89 90NNOOTTEESS 91 If a local user needs to be in the local host’s “wheel” group but not in 92 every host’s “wheel” group, put them in the local host’s _/_e_t_c_/_g_r_o_u_p 93 “wheel” entry and set up the “groups” portion of your _/_e_t_c_/_i_r_s_._c_o_n_f file 94 as: 95 96 group local continue,merge 97 group nis 98 99 NIS takes a long time to time out. Especially for hosts if you use the 100 --dd option to your server’s “ypserv” daemon. 101 102 It is important that the _i_r_s_._c_o_n_f file contain an entry for each map. If 103 a map is not mentioned in the _i_r_s_._c_o_n_f file, all queries to that map will 104 fail. 105 106 The classic NIS mechanism for specifying union namespaces is to add an 107 entry to a local map file whose name is ‘‘+’’. In IRS, this is done via 108 ‘‘continue’’ and/or ‘‘merge’’ map options. While this results in a small 109 incompatibility when local map files are imported from non-IRS systems to 110 IRS systems, there are compensating advantages in security and configura‐ 111 bility. 112 113FFIILLEESS 114 /etc/irs.conf The file iirrss..ccoonnff resides in _/_e_t_c. 115 116SSEEEE AALLSSOO 117 groups(5), hosts(5), netgroup(5), networks(5), passwd(5), protocols(5), 118 services(5) 119 120BIND 8.1 November 16, 1997 BIND 8.1 121