NS2ALIASES

Section: Maintenance Commands (8)
Updated: April 4, 1992
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NAME

ns2tab - Extract a sendmail aliases table from the nameserver  

SYNOPSIS

ns2tab [ option ... ]  

DESCRIPTION

Ns2tab is a program to query Internet domain name servers and print the information retrieved in different formats. Supported formats include aliases(5) for sendmail, /etc/group, /etc/passwd, /etc/hosts and aliases.text for the Elm mailer.

 

ARGUMENTS

If given no arguments, ns2tab will query the domain found in /etc/resolv.conf and print on stdout an aliases-table. Behaviour can be modified by the style=XX argument, where XX is one of:
aliases
Output is in /usr/lib/aliases format, which also is compatiple with an mh-alias file. Information is gathered from MB, MR, MINFO, MG and UINFO resource records. Maillists with no members are ignored.
elm
This is a slightly different way of representing the same information for elm. This style will only be used if you don't intend to have have an /usr/lib/aliases or equivalent.
lelm
Known as local elm, because it make elm expect that the recipients will be expanded into real adresslists by the mail agent. In short, if you use this, then you must also generate an /usr/lib/aliases file (if you use sendmail).
group
Outputs maillists in group format. If any members are groups (They have a MINFO record) they will be expanded unless there is a UID. This will be done recursively. Beware that this opens an alley to loop referencing. Information is gathered from MINFO, MG, GID and UINFO resource records.
nrgroup
Nonrecursive group format.
pwupd
Runs through the passwd table using getpwent(3), looks up each name in the nameserver, and outputs the account-line with the GECOS field replaced with the value of the UINFO resource record.
hosts
As you would expect: /usr/hosts. To avoid excessive long lines host-aliases are not domain-expanded. Information is gathered from A, CNAME and HINFO records.

The next set of styles are only relevant if you have linked in Hesiod emulation. The intent is to allow you to use Hesiod, even though not all of your computers support it. The query class does not have to HS, but can be anything supported by your nameserver. This way you can get Hesiod functionality even if none of your computers support it. Note that ns2tab defaults to query the IN class.

fstab
Ns2tab will prepend filsys to your current domain, look for TXT records and print in /etc/fstab style as in Ultrix 4.x and BSD4.2.
checklist
Same, but output is in /etc/checklist format as used on HP/UX and others:
filesys
SCO Unix V.3.2 /etc/default/filesys format.
vfstab
UNIX V.4 /etc/vfstab format.
passwd
Ns2tab prepends passwd and outputs password file entries.
printcap
Output is in /etc/printcap format.

server=server will set the server to query. If not used ns2tab will default to a value found in /etc/resolv.conf Remember to query an autoritative server, otherwise you get no output.

out=filename Opens a file where all output will go.

domain=domain The domain to query. If specified more than once ns2tab will load the additional domains into the same internal tables, overwriting if there is any redundant data. This feature allow you to have special versions of the same file for a single or a cluster of computers. Consider: ns2tab domain=dc.dk load domain=cluster1.dc.dk style=group

class={IN,CHAOS,HS,ANY} Sets the query class. Ns2tab assume IN semantics for all ressource records no matter what class you use.

suffix=domain Use this argument if the domain to query is subjugated a higher level domain. (meaning: it doesn't have its own SOA).

load Explicitly load the resource records. Ns2tab will do it automatically if when it is time to print. print Print in the style previously set. It will allow you to print several styles in the same run.  

EXAMPLES

Given the following nameserver records, the format for each style is shown below.
bob     MR      robert
rnews   MR      "|/usr/local/bin/uurec"
robert  MB      hostx
        UINFO   "Robert Robespierre,MH-2323,3998"

wheel   MINFO   wagner  root
        GID     0
        UINFO   "Root task force"
        MG      robert
        MG      james

dyer.filsys     IN      TXT     "NFS /mit/dyer eurydice w /mit/dyer"

Aliases format:
bob: robert
rnews: "|/usr/local/bin/uurec"
# robert +- Robert Robespierre,MH-2323,3998
robert: robert@hostx
# Root task force
wheel-request: wagner
owner-wheel: root
wheel: robert,james

elm format:
bob =  = robert
rnews =  = "|/usr/local/bin/uurec"
robert = Robert Robespierre,MH-2323,3998 = robert@hostx
wheel-request = wheel Request = wagner
owner-wheel = wheel Errors = root
wheel = Root task force = robert, james

group format:
wheel:*:0:robert,james

fstab format:
/mit/dyer@eurydice:/mit/dyer:rw:0:0:nfs:hard,intr:

- and if robert has a passwd entry like:
robert:Idh.wiU8oiJww:3028:1:Robert Robespierre,MH-4572,3652:/u/robert:
it will become:
robert:Idh.wiU8oiJww:3028:1:Robert Robespierre,MH-2323,3998:/u/robert:

Try: ns2tab server=dc.dk dom=dc.dk out=/tmp/aliases style=aliases out=/tmp/elm style=elm  

DIAGNOSTICS

If the lookup request was not successful, an error message is printed. Possible errors are:
Timed out
The server did not respond to a request after a certain amount of time (changed with timeout=value) and a certain number of retries (changed with retry=value).
No response from server
No name server is running on the server machine.
No records
The server does not have resource records of the current query type for the host, although the host name is valid. The query type is specified with the querytype command.
Non-existent domain
The host or domain name does not exist.
Connection refused
Network is unreachable
The connection to the name server could not be made at the current time.
Server failure
The name server found an internal inconsistency in its database and could not return a valid answer.
Refused
The name server refused to service the request.
Format error
The name server found that the request packet was not in the proper format. It may indicate an error in ns2tab.

 

FILES

/etc/resolv.conf   initial domain name and
                   name server addresses.
 

ENVIRONMENT

LOCALDOMAIN    overrides default domain.
 

BUGS

I'm sure I left some in.. but I've forgotten where..  

SEE ALSO

resolver(3), resolver(5), named(8), nslookup(8),
RFC-1034 ``Domain Names - Concepts and Facilities''
RFC-1035 ``Domain Names - Implementation and Specification''
``The Hesiod Name Server'' by Stephen P. Dryer  

AUTHOR

Soren Roug, based on the nslookup program developed by Andrew Cherenson


 

Index

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
ARGUMENTS
EXAMPLES
DIAGNOSTICS
FILES
ENVIRONMENT
BUGS
SEE ALSO
AUTHOR

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Time: 06:26:06 GMT, December 12, 2024