Destroying Contexts

The fndestroy command is used to destroy empty contexts.

For example, to destroy the service context of the user patel:

# fndestroy user/patel/service

Working With Attributes

The fnattr command can be used to add, delete or modify attributes associated with a name. You can make modifications one at a time, or batch several within the same command.

• fnattr [-l] name to list attributes for name.

• fnattr name -a-s -U -O attrib values to add an attribute

• fnattr name -m -O -U attrib oldvalue newvalue to modify an attribute

• fnattr name -d -O | -U [values attrib] to destroy an attribute

Table 25-8 fnattr Command Options

For example:

To show all of the attributes associated with the user name rosa:

# fnattr user/rosa

To display the size attribute associated with the user uri:

# fnattr user/uri/ size

For a user named devlin, to add an attribute named shoesize with a value of small, delete the hatsize attribute, and change the dresssize attribute value from 12 to 8:

# fnattr user/devlin -a shoesize small -d hatsize -m dresssize 12 8

Federating a Global Namespace

You can federate NIS+ or NIS to a global naming service like DNS and X.500.

To federate an NIS+ or NIS namespace under DNS or X.500, you first need to obtain the root reference for the NIS+ hierarchy or NIS domain.

From the point of view of the global name service, the root reference is known as the next naming system reference because it refers to the next naming system beneath the DNS domain or X.500 entry. To federate NIS+ or NIS with a global name service, you add the root reference information to that global service.

Once you have added the root reference information to the global service, clients outside of your NIS+ hierarchy or NIS domain can access and perform operations on the contexts in the NIS+ hierarchy or NIS domain. Foreign NIS+ clients access the hierarchy as unauthenticated NIS+ clients.

For example:

If NIS+ is federated underneath the DNS domain doc.com., you can now list the root of the NIS+ enterprise using the command

# fnlist .../doc.com/

If NIS+ is federated underneath the X.500 entry /c=us/o=doc, you can list the root of the NIS+ enterprise using the command:

# fnlist .../c=us/o=doc/

Note the mandatory trailing slash in both examples.

Copying and Converting FNS Contexts

The fncopy command can be used to copy or convert an FNS context and attributes to a new FNS context.

By using the -i and -o options, you can copy FNS contexts based on one underlying enterprise-level name service to a context based on a different underlying name service. For example, if you have an FNS installation running on top of NIS, and you upgrade your NIS service to NIS+, you can use fncopy to create a new context using NIS+.

Note that:

• If the new FNS context that you are copying an old context to already exists for the target name service, only new contexts and bindings are copied. The contexts are not over-written or changed.

• fncopy does not follow links, but copies the FNS link bound to a name to the new context namespace.

Table 25-9 fncopy Command Options

For example, to copy the doc.com printer contexts (and sub-contexts) and bindings to orgunit/east/doc.com:

# fncopy .../doc.com/service/printer .../doc.com/orgunit/east/service/printer

To copy the NIS FNS users' contexts specified in the file user_list to an NIS+ FNS users' context of the orgunit west/doc.com:

# fncopy -i nis -o nisplus -f /etc/user_list thisorgunit/user org/doc.com/user

Namespace Browser Programming Examples

The programming examples in this section shows the usage of XFN APIs to perform the following operations:

• "Listing Names Bound in a Context".

• "Creating a Binding".

• "Listing and Working Wtih Object Attributes".

• "Adding, Deleting, and Modifying an Object's Attributes".

• "Searching for Objects in a Context".