NETGROUP(5)               OpenBSD Programmer's Manual              NETGROUP(5)

NAME
     netgroup - defines network groups

SYNOPSIS
     /etc/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 an-
     other netgroup or a specification of a tuple as follows:

           (host, user, domain)

     where the host, user, and domain are character string names for the cor-
     responding component.  Any of the comma separated fields may be empty to
     specify a ``wildcard'' value or may consist of the single character ``-''
     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.

     These functions operate on the db(3) version of the netgroup
     (netgroup.db) file which can be generated using netgroup_mkdb(8).  If
     that file is not present, and the system supports NIS, then the netgroup
     NIS maps are used.  The NIS maps are also used if the netgroup file con-
     tains a ``+'' entry.

     Lines that begin with a `#' are treated as comments.

FILES
     /etc/netgroup     default netgroup list
     /etc/netgroup.db  netgroup database

SEE ALSO
     getnetgrent(3), exports(5), netgroup_mkdb(8)

STANDARDS
     The file format is compatible with that of various vendors, although 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.

OpenBSD 4.7                      May 31, 2007                                1
