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Date:      Fri, 6 Dec 2002 13:58:29 -0500 (EST)
From:      Robert Watson <rwatson@freebsd.org>
To:        Octavian Hornoiu <octavian@hacknslash.org>
Cc:        freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: nsswitch functionality
Message-ID:  <Pine.NEB.3.96L.1021206135526.18900B-100000@fledge.watson.org>
In-Reply-To: <1039195860.3df0ded41aacd@mail.hacknslash.org>

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On Fri, 6 Dec 2002, Octavian Hornoiu wrote:

> I have been doing a lot of research into integrating FreeBSD into my
> company's network recently and we have been converting our servers to
> FreeBSD gradually but one of the hurdles to overcome is the login issue. 
> In order to make logins seamless across our network I **MUST** use NT
> logins which means I need winbind functionality to work. 
> 
> Winbind requires nsswitch to work properly and I know that FreeBSD does
> not support it currently but why is this not a top priority at the
> moment?  I would much rather have nsswitch working than some of the
> minor features introduced in 5.0.  At least, this is my humble opinion
> and I might be asking too much.  Is there a dedicated resource working
> on nsswitch at the current moment or is the project dead? 

Right now there is no active work (that I know of) to complete nsswitch. 
It's something I've wanted to see in place for a long time, but I've had
some trouble finding funding to make this happen.  Having funding would
provide access to a broader array of hands, and always has a good affect
on motivation.  I can find you a contractor if you can find the money --
otherwise my guess is that the support will gradually trickle in, but that
it's something that will take a look longer than either you or I would
like.  Having nsswitch in place is very important for precisely the reason
you identify: it's required to properly integrate with a variet of
directory services in use in the enterprise.  FWIW, there's no way it will
happen for 5.0, because we're already in the release candidate series.
However, it could be made to happen within a quarter or two.  If anyone is
interested in picking up this task unfunded, we can certainly provide the
technical information and work with them to make it happen, but it's a
non-trivial task.  There are some work-arounds, but none of them nearly as
pretty as just having nsswitch support :-).  One I know of involves
redistributing directory service data via NIS.

Robert N M Watson             FreeBSD Core Team, TrustedBSD Projects
robert@fledge.watson.org      Network Associates Laboratories


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