.\" Copyright (c) 1992 The Regents of the University of California.
.\" All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" %sccs.include.redist.roff%
.\"
.\"     @(#)netgroup.5	5.1 (Berkeley) 04/15/92
.\"
.Dd 
.Dt NETGROUP 5
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm netgroup
.Nd defines network groups
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm netgroup
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm netgroup
file
specifies ``netgroups'', which are sets of
.Sy (host, user, domain)
tuples that are to be given similar network access.
.Pp
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:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
(host, user, domain)
.Ed
where the
.Sy host ,
.Sy user ,
and
.Sy 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 and/or commas;
the ``\e'' character may be used at the end of a line to specify
line continuation.
The functions specified in
.Xr getnetgrent 3
should normally be used to access the
.Nm netgroup
database.
.Pp
Lines that begin with a # are treated as comments.
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width /etc/netgroup -compact
.It Pa /etc/netgroup
the netgroup database.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr getnetgrent 3 ,
.Xr exports 5
.Sh COMPATIBILITY
The file format is compatible with that of various vendors, however it
appears that not all vendors use an identical format.
.Sh BUGS
The interpretation of access restrictions based of the member tuples of a
netgroup is left up to the various network applications.
Also, it is not obvious how the domain specification
applies to the BSD environment.