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 authoriza-
tion system that is built upon Secure RPC. In this implemen-
tation, the service uses a table named cred.orgdir.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 groupsdir.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 ser-
vice, in NIS], the information in the tables is initially
loaded into the service from the ASCI files on the server
and then updated using NIS] utilities. See nistbladm(1).
Some sites may wish to periodically regenerate the ASCI
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 ASCI file from the result.
Note that except for the NISCOLDSTART and
NISHAREDIRCACHE file, no other files should be manipu-
lated by commands such as cp(1), mv(1) or rm(1). The tran-
saction 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 direc-
tory:
NISCOLDSTART 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).
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NISHAREDIRCACHE Contains the current cache of NIS]
bindings being maintained by the
cache manager. The contents can be
viewed with nisshowcache(1M).
clientinfo Contains configuration information,
for example, preferred servers,
options, and the like, for
niscachemgr(1M) and potentially
other NIS] clients on the system. It
is manipulated by the nisprefadm(1M)
command.
.prefservers A cached copy of preferred server
information. It is maintained by
niscachemgr. 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 dic-
tionary. When the server is check-
pointed, this file will be deleted.
See the discussion 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.
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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/tablename 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,
tablename.subdirectory.
data/tablename.log Contains the database log for the
table tablename. The log file main-
tains the state of individual tran-
sactions to each database. When a
database has been checkpointed, that
is, all changes have been made to the
data/tablename stable storage, this
log file will be deleted.
Currently, NIS] does not automati-
cally do checkpointing. The system
administrator may want to do
nisping-C operations periodically,
perhaps once a day, to checkpoint the
log file. This can be done either
through a cron(1M) job, or manually.
data/rootdir 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 rootdir.log.
data/cred.orgdir Table containing the credentials of
principals in this NIS] domain.
data/groupsdir Table containing the group authoriza-
tion objects needed by NIS] to
authorize group access.
data/servinglist Contains a list of all NIS] direc-
tories that are being served by the
NIS] server on this server. When this
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File Formats nisfiles(4)
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), niscachemgr(1M), nis-
cat(1), nismatch(1), nistbladm(1), rm(1), cron(1M),
nisclient(1M), nisinit(1M), nislog(1M), nisping(1M),
nisprefadm(1M), nisshowcache(1M), nisobjects(3NSL)
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.
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