niscat(1)							   User Commands							 niscat(1)

NAME

       niscat - display NIS+ tables and objects

SYNOPSIS

       niscat [-AhLMv] [-s sep] tablename...

       niscat [-ALMP] -o name...

DESCRIPTION

       In  the first synopsis, niscat displays the contents of the NIS+ tables named by  tablename. In the second synopsis, it displays the inter-
       nal representation of the NIS+ objects named by name.

       Columns without values in the table are displayed by two adjacent separator characters.

OPTIONS

       The following options are supported:

       -A	  Displays the data within the table and all of  the data in tables in the initial table's concatenation path.

       -h	  Displays the header line prior to displaying the table. The header consists of the `#' (hash) character followed by the name	of
		  each column. The column names are separated by the table separator character.

       -L	  Follows links. When this option is specified, if tablename or name names a LINK type object, the link is followed and the object
		  or table named by the link is displayed.

       -M	  Master server only. This option specifies that the request should be sent to the master server of the named data.  This  guaran-
		  tees	that  the  most  up-to-date  information  is  seen at the possible expense of increasing the load on the master server and
		  increasing the possibility of the NIS+ server being unavailable or busy for updates.

       -o name	  Displays the internal representation of the named NIS+ object(s). If name is an indexed name (see nismatch(1)), then each of the
		  matching entry objects is displayed. This option is used to display access rights and other attributes of individual columns.

       -P	  Follows  concatenation path. This option specifies that the request should  follow the concatenation path of a table if the ini-
		  tial search is unsuccessful. This option is only useful when using an indexed name for name and the -o option.

       -s sep	  This option specifies the character to use to separate the table columns. If no character is specified,  the	default  separator
		  for the table is used.

       -v	  Displays  binary  data directly. This option displays columns containing binary data on the standard output. Without this option
		  binary data is displayed as the string  *BINARY*.

EXAMPLES

       Example 1 Displaying the Contents of the Hosts Table

       The following example displays the contents of the hosts table:

	 example% niscat -h hosts.org_dir
	 # cname   name addr comment
	 client1   client1   192.168.201.100	 Joe Smith
	 crunchy   crunchy   192.168.201.44 Jane Smith
	 crunchy   softy     192.168.201.44

       The string *NP* is returned in those fields where the user has insufficient access rights.

       Example 2 Displaying on the Standard Output

       The following displays the passwd.org_dir on the standard output.

	 example% niscat passwd.org_dir

       Example 3 Displaying Table Contents

       Display the contents of table frodo and the contents of all tables in its concatenation path.

	 example% niscat -A frodo

       Example 4 Displaying Table Entries

       The following example diisplays the entries in the table groups.org_dir as NIS+ objects. Notice that the brackets are  protected  from  the
       shell by single quotes.

	 example% niscat -o '[ ]groups.org_dir'

       Example 5 Displaying the Table Object

       The following example displays the table object of the passwd.org_dir table.

	 example% niscat -o passwd.org_dir

       The previous example displays the passwd table object and not the passwd table. The table object includes information such as the number of
       columns, column type, searchable or not searchable separator, access rights, and other defaults.

       Example 6 Displaying the Directory Object

       The following example displays the directory object for org_dir, which includes information such as the access rights and replica  informa-
       tion.

	 example% niscat -o org_dir

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       NIS_PATH    If  this  variable  is set, and the NIS+ table name is not fully qualified, each directory specified will be searched until the
		   table is found (see nisdefaults(1)).

EXIT STATUS

       niscat returns the following values:

       0    Successful completion

       1    An error occurred.

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability		     |SUNWnisu			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       NIS+(1), nisdefaults(1), nismatch(1), nistbladm(1), nis_objects(3NSL), nis_tables(3NSL), attributes(5)

NOTES

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

SunOS 5.11							    2 Dec 2005								 niscat(1)