NAME
nsdispatch
—
name-service switch dispatcher
routine
LIBRARY
library “libc”
SYNOPSIS
#include
<sys/types.h>
#include <stdarg.h>
#include <nsswitch.h>
int
nsdispatch
(void *retval,
const ns_dtab dtab[], const char
*database, const char *method_name,
const ns_src defaults[],
...);
DESCRIPTION
Thensdispatch
()
function invokes the methods specified in dtab in the
order given by
nsswitch.conf(5) for the database
database until a successful entry is found.
retval is passed to each
method to modify as necessary, to pass back results to the caller of
nsdispatch
().
Each method has the function signature described by the typedef:
typedef int
(*nss_method)
(void *retval,
void *mdata, va_list *ap);
dtab is an array of ns_dtab structures, which have the following format:
typedef struct _ns_dtab { const char *src; nss_method method; void *mdata; } ns_dtab;
The dtab array should consist of one entry
for each source type that is implemented, with src as
the name of the source, method as a function which
handles that source, and mdata as a handle on
arbitrary data to be passed to the method. The last entry in
dtab should contain NULL
values for src, method, and
mdata.
Additionally, methods may be implemented in NSS modules, in which case they are selected using the database and method_name arguments along with the configured source. Modules must use source names different from the built-in ones.
defaults contains a list of default sources to try if nsswitch.conf(5) is missing or corrupted, or if there is no relevant entry for database. It is an array of ns_src structures, which have the following format:
typedef struct _ns_src { const char *src; uint32_t flags; } ns_src;
The defaults array should consist of one
entry for each source to be configured by default indicated by
src, and flags set to the
criterion desired (usually NS_SUCCESS
; refer to
Method return values for more
information). The last entry in defaults should have
src set to NULL
and
flags set to 0.
For convenience, a global variable defined as:
extern const ns_src
__nsdefaultsrc[];
exists which contains a single default entry for the source ‘files’ that may be used by callers which do not require complicated default rules.
‘...’ are optional extra arguments, which are passed to the appropriate method as a variable argument list of the type va_list.
Valid source types
While there is support for arbitrary sources, the following #defines for commonly implemented sources are available:
#define | value |
NSSRC_FILES |
"files" |
NSSRC_DB |
"db" |
NSSRC_DNS |
"dns" |
NSSRC_NIS |
"nis" |
NSSRC_COMPAT |
"compat" |
Refer to nsswitch.conf(5) for a complete description of what each source type is.
Method return values
The nss_method functions must return one of the following values depending upon status of the lookup:
Return value | Status code |
NS_SUCCESS |
success |
NS_NOTFOUND |
notfound |
NS_UNAVAIL |
unavail |
NS_TRYAGAIN |
tryagain |
NS_RETURN |
-none- |
Refer to nsswitch.conf(5) for a complete description of each status code.
The
nsdispatch
()
function returns the value of the method that caused the dispatcher to
terminate, or NS_NOTFOUND
otherwise.
NOTES
FreeBSD's library
“libc” provides stubs for compatibility with NSS
modules written for the GNU C Library nsswitch
interface. However, these stubs only support the use of the
“passwd
” and
“group
” databases.
SEE ALSO
HISTORY
The nsdispatch
() function first appeared
in FreeBSD 5.0. It was imported from the
NetBSD Project, where it appeared first in
NetBSD 1.4. Support for NSS modules first appeared
in FreeBSD 5.1.
AUTHORS
Luke Mewburn
<lukem@netbsd.org>
wrote this freely-distributable name-service switch implementation, using
ideas from the ULTRIX svc.conf(5) and Solaris nsswitch.conf(4) manual pages.
The FreeBSD Project added the support for threads
and NSS modules, and normalized the uses of
nsdispatch
() within the standard C library.