\section{\module{nis} ---

Interface to Sun's NIS (Yello Pages)}

\declaremodule{extension}{nis}

\platform{UNIX}

\moduleauthor{Fred Gansevles}{[email protected]}

\sectionauthor{Moshe Zadka}{[email protected]}

\modulesynopsis{Interface to Sun's N.I.S. (a.k.a. Yellow Pages) library.}

The \module{nis} module gives a thin wrapper around the NIS library, useful

for central administration of several hosts.

Because NIS exists only on \UNIX{} systems, this module is

only available for \UNIX{}.

The \module{nis} module defines the following functions:

\begin{funcdesc}{match}{key, mapname}

Return the match for \var{key} in map \var{mapname}, or raise an

error (\exception{nis.error}) if there is none.

Both should be strings, \var{key} is 8-bit clean.

Return value is an arbitary array of bytes (i.e., may contain \code{NULL}

and other joys).

Note that \var{mapname} is first checked if it is an alias to another name.

XXX Describe list of all aliases? Internal for the C code, so

I'm not sure it's a good idea.

\end{funcdesc}

\begin{funcdesc}{cat}{mapname}

Return a dictionary mapping \var{key} to \var{value} such that

\code{match(\var{key}, \var{mapname})==\var{value}}.

Note that both keys and values of the dictionary are arbitary

arrays of bytes.

Note that \var{mapname} is first checked if it is an alias to another name.

\end{funcdesc}

\begin{funcdesc}{maps}{}

Return a list of all valid maps.

\end{funcdesc}

The \module{nis} module defines the following exception:

\begin{excdesc}{error}

An error raised when a NIS function returns an error code.

\end{excdesc}