NETGROUP(5)                 BSD File Formats Manual                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 cor-
     responding component.  Any of the comma separated fields may be empty to
     specify a ``wildcard'' value or may consist of the string ``-'' to spec-
     ify ``no valid value''.  The members of the list may be separated by
     whitespace and/or commas; 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.

     Lines that begin with a # are treated as comments.

FILES
     /etc/netgroup  the netgroup database.

SEE ALSO
     getnetgrent(3), exports(5)

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.  Also, it is not
     obvious how the domain specification applies to the BSD environment.

BSD                            December 11, 1993                           BSD