makedbm(1M)

NAME

makedbm — make a Network Information System database

SYNOPSIS

/usr/sbin/makedbm [-b] [-l] [-s] [-i nis_input_file] [-o nis_output_name] [-d nis_domain_name] [-m nis_master_name] infile outfile

/usr/sbin/makedbm -u database_name

Remarks

The Network Information Service (NIS) was formerly known as Yellow Pages (yp). Although the name has changed, the functionality of the service remains the same.

DESCRIPTION

makedbm generates databases (maps) for the Network Information System (NIS) from infile. A database created by makedbm consists of two files: outfile.pag and outfile.dir. A makedbm database contains records called dbm records composed of key-value pairs.

Each line of infile is converted to a single dbm record; all characters up to the first tab or space form the key, and the remainder of the line is the value. If a value read from infile ends with \, the value for that record is continued onto the next line. The NIS clients must interpret the # character (which means that makedbm does not treat the # as if it precedes a comment). If infile is a hyphen (-), makedbm reads standard input.

makedbm always generates a special dbm record with the key YP_LAST_MODIFIED, whose value is the time of last modification of infile (or the current time, if infile is -). This value is also known as the order number of a map, and yppoll prints it for a specified NIS map (see yppoll(1M)).

Another special dbm record created by makedbm has the key YP_MASTER_NAME. Its value is usually the host name retrieved by gethostname(); however, the -m option can be used to specify a different value (see gethostname(2)).

If the -b option is used, another special dbm record with the YP_INTERDOMAIN key is created. When this key exists in the NIS host.by* maps or ipnodes.by* maps and the NIS host name resolution fails, the ypserv process will query the Internet domain name server, named, to provide the host name resolution. Before using the -b option, it is recommended that the name services switch, switch, be set to allow NIS host name resolution first. (Note that, since the ypserv process only checks hosts.by* and ipnodes.by* for the existence of the YP_INTERDOMAIN key, using the -b option on any other NIS map will have no effect. Also, the -b option should be used on both the *.byname and *.byaddr maps, not one exclusively.)

If the -s option is used, another special dbm record created is the YP_SECURE key. If this key exists in an NIS map, ypserv will only allow privileged processes (applications that can create reserved ports) to access the data within the map.

Options

makedbm recognizes the following options and command-line arguments.

-b: Create a special dbm record with the key YP_INTERDOMAIN. This key, which is in the hosts.byname, hosts.byaddr, ipnodes.byname, and ipnodes.byaddr maps, allows the ypserv process to query the Internet domain name server (see named(1M)).
-l: Convert the keys of the given map to lowercase. This command option allows host name matches to work independent of character-case distinctions.
-s: Accept connections from secure NIS networks only.
-i: Create a special dbm record with the key YP_INPUT_FILE and the value nis_input_file. If the -s option is used, another special dbm record created is the YP_SECURE key. If this key exists in an NIS map, ypserv will only allow privileged processes to access the data within the map (that is, applications that can create reserved ports).
-o: Create a special dbm record with the key YP_OUTPUT_NAME and the value nis_output_name.
-d: Create a special dbm record with the key YP_DOMAIN_NAME and the value nis_domain_name.
-m: Replace the value of the special dbm record whose key is YP_MASTER_NAME with nis_master_name.
-u: Undo the database_name (that is, write the contents of database_name to the standard output) one dbm record per line. A single space separates each key from its value.

EXAMPLES

Shell scripts can be written to convert ASCII files such as /etc/netgroup to the key-value form used by makedbm. For example,

#!/usr/bin/sh
/usr/bin/awk 'BEGIN { FS = ":" } { print $1, $0 }' \
        /etc/netgroup | \
makedbm - netgroup

converts the file /etc/netgroup to a form that is read by makedbm to make the NIS map netgroup. The keys in the database are netgroup names, and the values are the remainders of the lines in the /etc/netgroup file.

AUTHOR

makedbm was developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc.

makedbm(1M)

Technical documentation

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