January 16, 1999 NETGROUP 5

### NAME

netgroup - defines network groups

### SYNOPSIS

netgroup

### DESCRIPTION

The netgroup file specifies ``netgroups'', which are sets of (host, user, domain) tuples that are to be given similar network access.

Each line in the file consists of a netgroup name followed by a list of the members of the netgroup. Each member can be either the name of another netgroup or a specification of a tuple as follows:

  `

      (host, user, domain)

  `

where the host, user, and domain are character string names for the corresponding component. Any of the comma separated fields may be empty to specify a ``wildcard'' value or may consist of the string `````-`'' to specify ``no valid value''. The members of the list may be separated by whitespace; the ``\'' character may be used at the end of a line to specify line continuation. The functions specified in getnetgrent(3) should normally be used to access the netgroup database.

If `files' is specified for the `netgroup' database in nsswitch.conf(5), (or no `netgroup' entry is specified), then these functions operate on the db(3) version of the netgroup (netgroup.db) file which can be generated using netgroup_mkdb(8). If `nis' is specified then the NIS maps `netgroup', `netgroup.byhost', and `netgroup.byuser' are used.

Lines that begin with a # are treated as comments.

### FILES

```/etc/netgroup.db`
  the netgroup database.

### SEE ALSO

getnetgrent(3), exports(5), nsswitch.conf(5), netgroup_mkdb(8)

### COMPATIBILITY

The file format is compatible with that of various vendors, however it appears that not all vendors use an identical format.

### BUGS

The interpretation of access restrictions based on the member tuples of a netgroup is left up to the various network applications.