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 29 System Databases and Name Service Switch
 *******************************************
 
 Various functions in the C Library need to be configured to work
 correctly in the local environment.  Traditionally, this was done by
 using files (e.g., '/etc/passwd'), but other nameservices (like the
 Network Information Service (NIS) and the Domain Name Service (DNS))
 became popular, and were hacked into the C library, usually with a fixed
 search order.
 
    The GNU C Library contains a cleaner solution of this problem.  It is
 designed after a method used by Sun Microsystems in the C library of
 Solaris 2.  The GNU C Library follows their name and calls this scheme
 "Name Service Switch" (NSS).
 
    Though the interface might be similar to Sun's version there is no
 common code.  We never saw any source code of Sun's implementation and
 so the internal interface is incompatible.  This also manifests in the
 file names we use as we will see later.
 

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* NSS Basics                  What is this NSS good for.
* NSS Configuration File      Configuring NSS.
* NSS Module Internals        How does it work internally.
* Extending NSS               What to do to add services or databases.
 

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