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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 corresponding component.  Any of
     the comma separated fields may be empty to specify a ``wildcard'' value or may consist of the string
     ``-'' to specify ``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 func-tions functions
     tions 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