SETNETGRENT

Section: Linux Programmer's Manual (3)
Updated: 2017-09-15
Index Return to Main Contents

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NAME

setnetgrent, endnetgrent, getnetgrent, getnetgrent_r, innetgr - handle network group entries  

SYNOPSIS

#include <netdb.h>

int setnetgrent(const char *netgroup);

void endnetgrent(void);

int getnetgrent(char **host, char **user, char **domain);

int getnetgrent_r(char **host, char **user,
                  char **domain, char *buf, size_t buflen);

int innetgr(const char *netgroup, const char *host,
            const char *user, const char *domain);

Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

setnetgrent(), endnetgrent(), getnetgrent(), getnetgrent_r(), innetgr():
    Since glibc 2.19:
        _DEFAULT_SOURCE
    Glibc 2.19 and earlier:
        _BSD_SOURCE || _SVID_SOURCE  

DESCRIPTION

The netgroup is a SunOS invention. A netgroup database is a list of string triples (hostname, username, domainname) or other netgroup names. Any of the elements in a triple can be empty, which means that anything matches. The functions described here allow access to the netgroup databases. The file /etc/nsswitch.conf defines what database is searched.

The setnetgrent() call defines the netgroup that will be searched by subsequent getnetgrent() calls. The getnetgrent() function retrieves the next netgroup entry, and returns pointers in host, user, domain. A null pointer means that the corresponding entry matches any string. The pointers are valid only as long as there is no call to other netgroup-related functions. To avoid this problem you can use the GNU function getnetgrent_r() that stores the strings in the supplied buffer. To free all allocated buffers use endnetgrent().

In most cases you want to check only if the triplet (hostname, username, domainname) is a member of a netgroup. The function innetgr() can be used for this without calling the above three functions. Again, a null pointer is a wildcard and matches any string. The function is thread-safe.  

RETURN VALUE

These functions return 1 on success and 0 for failure.  

FILES

/etc/netgroup
/etc/nsswitch.conf  

ATTRIBUTES

For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).

Interface	Attribute	Value
setnetgrent(), getnetgrent_r(), innetgr()	Thread safety	MT-Unsafe race:netgrent locale
endnetgrent()	Thread safety	MT-Unsafe race:netgrent
getnetgrent()	Thread safety	MT-Unsafe race:netgrent race:netgrentbuf locale

In the above table, netgrent in race:netgrent signifies that if any of the functions setnetgrent(), getnetgrent_r(), innetgr(), getnetgrent(), or endnetgrent() are used in parallel in different threads of a program, then data races could occur.  

CONFORMING TO

These functions are not in POSIX.1, but setnetgrent(), endnetgrent(), getnetgrent(), and innetgr() are available on most UNIX systems. getnetgrent_r() is not widely available on other systems.  

NOTES

In the BSD implementation, setnetgrent() returns void.  

SEE ALSO

sethostent(3), setprotoent(3), setservent(3)  

COLOPHON

This page is part of release 4.13 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the latest version of this page, can be found at https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

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Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

RETURN VALUE

FILES

ATTRIBUTES

CONFORMING TO

NOTES

SEE ALSO

COLOPHON