nisfiles(4) File Formats nisfiles(4)NAMEnisfiles - NIS+ database files and directory structure
SYNOPSIS
/var/nis
DESCRIPTION
The Network Information Service Plus (NIS+) uses a memory based, repli‐
cated 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 regen‐
erate 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+ installa‐
tion time. See nisinit(1M) or nisclient(1M).
NIS_SHARED_DIRCACHE Contains the current cache of NIS+ bindings
being maintained by the cache manager. The con‐
tents can be viewed with nisshowcache(1M).
client_info Contains configuration information, for exam‐
ple, 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 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.
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) com‐
mand.
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 ta‐
ble is stored in the file, table_name.subdirec‐
tory.
data/table_name.log Contains the database log for the table ta‐
ble_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 operations 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 simi‐
lar 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 ALSOcp(1), crontab(1), mv(1), nis(1), nis_cachemgr(1M), niscat(1), nis‐
match(1), nistbladm(1), rm(1), cron(1M), nisclient(1M), nisinit(1M),
nislog(1M), nisping(1M), nisprefadm(1M), nisshowcache(1M),
nis_objects(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.
SunOS 5.10 18 Dec 2001 nisfiles(4)
