SETNETGRENT(3)

NAME
setnetgrent, endnetgrent, getnetgrent, getnetgrent_r, innetgr - handle network group entries

SYNOPSIS
#include <netdb.h>

int setnetgrent(const char *netgroup);

void endnetgrent(void);

int getnetgrent(char **host, char **user, char **domain);

int getnetgrent_r(char **host, char **user,
                  char **domain, char *buf, size_t buflen);

int innetgr(const char *netgroup, const char *host,
            const char *user, const char *domain);

Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

setnetgrent(), endnetgrent(), getnetgrent(), getnetgrent_r(), innetgr():
    Since glibc 2.19:
        _DEFAULT_SOURCE
    Glibc 2.19 and earlier:
        _BSD_SOURCE || _SVID_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION
The netgroup is a SunOS invention. A netgroup database is a list of string triples (hostname, username, domainname) or other netgroup names. Any of the elements in a triple can be empty, which means that anything matches. The functions described here allow access to the netgroup databases. The file /etc/nsswitch.conf defines what database is searched.

The setnetgrent() call defines the netgroup that will be searched by subsequent getnetgrent() calls. The getnetgrent() function retrieves the next netgroup entry, and returns pointers in host, user, domain. A null pointer means that the corresponding entry matches any string. The pointers are valid only as long as there is no call to other netgroup-related functions. To avoid this problem you can use the GNU function getnetgrent_r() that stores the strings in the supplied buffer. To free all allocated buffers use endnetgrent().

In most cases you want to check only if the triplet (hostname, username, domainname) is a member of a netgroup. The function innetgr() can be used for this without calling the above three functions. Again, a null pointer is a wildcard and matches any string. The function is thread-safe.

RETURN VALUE
These functions return 1 on success and 0 for failure.

FILES
/etc/netgroup
/etc/nsswitch.conf

ATTRIBUTES
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).
Interface | Attribute | Value
 | Thread safety | MT-Unsafe race:netgrent locale
 | Thread safety | MT-Unsafe race:netgrent
 | Thread safety | MT-Unsafe race:netgrent race:netgrentbuf locale

In the above table, netgrent in race:netgrent signifies that if any of the functions setnetgrent(), getnetgrent_r(), innetgr(), getnetgrent(), or endnetgrent() are used in parallel in different threads of a program, then data races could occur.

CONFORMING TO
These functions are not in POSIX.1, but setnetgrent(), endnetgrent(), getnetgrent(), and innetgr() are available on most UNIX systems. getnetgrent_r() is not widely available on other systems.

NOTES
In the BSD implementation, setnetgrent() returns void.

SEE ALSO
sethostent(3), setprotoent(3), setservent(3)

COLOPHON
This page is part of release 4.15 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the latest version of this page, can be found at https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.