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(libc.info)Actions in the NSS configuration

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Actions in the NSS configuration
--------------------------------

   The second item in the specification gives the user much finer
control on the lookup process.  Action items are placed between two
service names and are written within brackets.  The general form is

     `[' ( `!'? STATUS `=' ACTION )+ `]'

where

     STATUS => success | notfound | unavail | tryagain
     ACTION => return | continue

   The case of the keywords is insignificant.  The STATUS values are
the results of a call to a lookup function of a specific service.  They
mean

`success'
     No error occurred and the wanted entry is returned.  The default
     action for this is `return'.

`notfound'
     The lookup process works ok but the needed value was not found.
     The default action is `continue'.

`unavail'
     The service is permanently unavailable.  This can either mean the
     needed file is not available, or, for DNS, the server is not
     available or does not allow queries.  The default action is
     `continue'.

`tryagain'
     The service is temporarily unavailable.  This could mean a file is
     locked or a server currently cannot accept more connections.  The
     default action is `continue'.

If we have a line like

     ethers: nisplus [NOTFOUND=return] db files

this is equivalent to

     ethers: nisplus [SUCCESS=return NOTFOUND=return UNAVAIL=continue
                      TRYAGAIN=continue]
             db      [SUCCESS=return NOTFOUND=continue UNAVAIL=continue
                      TRYAGAIN=continue]
             files

(except that it would have to be written on one line).  The default
value for the actions are normally what you want, and only need to be
changed in exceptional cases.

   If the optional `!' is placed before the STATUS this means the
following action is used for all statuses but STATUS itself.  I.e., `!'
is negation as in the C language (and others).

   Before we explain the exception which makes this action item
necessary one more remark: obviously it makes no sense to add another
action item after the `files' service.  Since there is no other service
following the action _always_ is `return'.

   Now, why is this `[NOTFOUND=return]' action useful?  To understand
this we should know that the `nisplus' service is often complete; i.e.,
if an entry is not available in the NIS+ tables it is not available
anywhere else.  This is what is expressed by this action item: it is
useless to examine further services since they will not give us a
result.

   The situation would be different if the NIS+ service is not available
because the machine is booting.  In this case the return value of the
lookup function is not `notfound' but instead `unavail'.  And as you
can see in the complete form above: in this situation the `db' and
`files' services are used.  Neat, isn't it?  The system administrator
need not pay special care for the time the system is not completely
ready to work (while booting or shutdown or network problems).