Doc/lib/libnis.tex

   1 \section{\module{nis} ---
   2          Interface to Sun's NIS (Yellow Pages)}
   3
   4 \declaremodule{extension}{nis}
   5   \platform{UNIX}
   6 \moduleauthor{Fred Gansevles}{Fred.Gansevles@cs.utwente.nl}
   7 \sectionauthor{Moshe Zadka}{moshez@zadka.site.co.il}
   8 \modulesynopsis{Interface to Sun's NIS (Yellow Pages) library.}
   9
  10 The \module{nis} module gives a thin wrapper around the NIS library, useful
  11 for central administration of several hosts.
  12
  13 Because NIS exists only on \UNIX{} systems, this module is
  14 only available for \UNIX.
  15
  16 The \module{nis} module defines the following functions:
  17
  18 \begin{funcdesc}{match}{key, mapname[, domain=default_domain]}
  19 Return the match for \var{key} in map \var{mapname}, or raise an
  20 error (\exception{nis.error}) if there is none.
  21 Both should be strings, \var{key} is 8-bit clean.
  22 Return value is an arbitrary array of bytes (may contain \code{NULL}
  23 and other joys).
  24
  25 Note that \var{mapname} is first checked if it is an alias to another
  26 name.
  27
  28 \versionchanged[The \var{domain} argument allows to override
  29 the NIS domain used for the lookup. If unspecified, lookup is in the
  30 default NIS domain]{2.5}
  31 \end{funcdesc}
  32
  33 \begin{funcdesc}{cat}{mapname[, domain=default_domain]}
  34 Return a dictionary mapping \var{key} to \var{value} such that
  35 \code{match(\var{key}, \var{mapname})==\var{value}}.
  36 Note that both keys and values of the dictionary are arbitrary
  37 arrays of bytes.
  38
  39 Note that \var{mapname} is first checked if it is an alias to another
  40 name.
  41
  42 \versionchanged[The \var{domain} argument allows to override
  43 the NIS domain used for the lookup. If unspecified, lookup is in the
  44 default NIS domain]{2.5}
  45 \end{funcdesc}
  46
  47  \begin{funcdesc}{maps}{[domain=default_domain]}
  48 Return a list of all valid maps.
  49
  50 \versionchanged[The \var{domain} argument allows to override
  51 the NIS domain used for the lookup. If unspecified, lookup is in the
  52 default NIS domain]{2.5}
  53 \end{funcdesc}
  54
  55  \begin{funcdesc}{get_default_domain}{}
  56 Return the system default NIS domain. \versionadded{2.5}
  57 \end{funcdesc}
  58
  59 The \module{nis} module defines the following exception:
  60
  61 \begin{excdesc}{error}
  62 An error raised when a NIS function returns an error code.
  63 \end{excdesc}