nisfiles(4)                                                        File Formats                                                        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 table 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 public 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/data 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  ser-
       vice  from  the   ASCII  files  on the server and then updated using NIS+ utilities. See  nistbladm(1). 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  that except for the NIS_COLDSTART and NIS_SHARED_DIRCACHE file, no other files should be manipulated 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           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     Contains  the current cache of NIS+ bindings being maintained by the cache manager. The contents can be viewed with
                               nisshowcache(1M).

       client_info             Contains configuration information, for example, preferred servers, options, and the  like,  for   nis_cachemgr(1M)
                               and potentially other NIS+ clients on the system. It is manipulated by the nisprefadm(1M) command.

       .pref_servers           A cached copy of preferred server information.  It is maintained by  nis_cachemgr. Do not edit this file manually.

       trans.log               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.

       data.dict               A  dictionary  that  is  used  by the NIS+ database to locate its files. It is created by the default NIS+ database
                               package.

       data.dict.log           The log file for the database dictionary. When the server is checkpointed, this file will be deleted. See the  dis-
                               cussion of the -C option of nisping(1M).

       data                    Contains databases that the server uses.

       data/root.object        On root servers, this file contains a directory object that describes the root of the name space.

       data/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.

       data/table_name         For each table in the directory there is a file with the same name that stores the information about that table. If
                               there are subdirectories within this directory, the database for the table is stored in the file, table_name.subdi-
                               rectory.

       data/table_name.log     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  data/table_name
                               stable storage, this log file will be deleted.

                               Currently, NIS+ does not automatically do checkpointing. The system administrator may want to do  nisping-C  opera-
                               tions periodically, perhaps once a day, to checkpoint the log file. This can be done either through a cron(1M) job,
                               or manually.

       data/root_dir           On root servers, this file stores the database associated with the root directory. It is  similar  to  other  table
                               databases. The corresponding log file is called root_dir.log.

       data/cred.org_dir       Table containing the credentials of principals in this NIS+ domain.

       data/groups_dir         Table containing the group authorization objects needed by NIS+ to authorize group access.

       data/serving_list       Contains  a list of all NIS+ directories that are being served by the NIS+ server on this server.  When this server
                               is added or deleted from any NIS+ directory object, this file is updated by the server.

SEE ALSO

       cp(1), crontab(1), mv(1), nis(1), nis_cachemgr(1M), niscat(1), nismatch(1), nistbladm(1), rm(1), cron(1M), nisclient(1M), nisinit(1M), nis-
       log(1M), nisping(1M), nisprefadm(1M), nisshowcache(1M), nis_objects(3NSL)

NOTES

       NIS+  might  not  be  supported in future releases of the SolarisTM Operating Environment. Tools to aid the migration from NIS+ to LDAP are
       available in the Solaris 9 operating environment. For more information, visit http://www.sun.com/directory/nisplus/transition.html.

SunOS 5.10                                                          18 Dec 2001                                                        nisfiles(4)