Date: Wed, 7 Dec 2005 08:39:39 +0000 From: Brian Candler <B.Candler@pobox.com> To: Brooks Davis <brooks@one-eyed-alien.net> Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org, freebsd-current@freebsd.org, Julian Elischer <julian@elischer.org>, Michael Bushkov <bushman@rsu.ru> Subject: Re: [PATCH] nsswitch extensions + caching Message-ID: <20051207083939.GA13055@uk.tiscali.com> In-Reply-To: <20051206193317.GB31292@odin.ac.hmc.edu> References: <43957D3F.4070109@rsu.ru> <4395DC82.1080103@elischer.org> <20051206193317.GB31292@odin.ac.hmc.edu>
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On Tue, Dec 06, 2005 at 11:33:17AM -0800, Brooks Davis wrote: > On Tue, Dec 06, 2005 at 10:46:26AM -0800, Julian Elischer wrote: > > Michael Bushkov wrote: > > [...] > > > > so, I've been wonderring.. what's all the fuss about nsswitch? > > what does it get us? > > It gives us the ability use modules to provide arbitrary backends for a > variety of interfaces to system databases. For instance getpw*(), > gethost*(), etc. Or put it another way - it supplies the missing half to PAM. Whilst PAM can check your password using arbitary backend modules, it can't return your $HOME directory or the uid/gid to use. Regards, Brian.
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