/etc/netgroup usage help

[Charles]

Hi,

   Here's a sample from our (fairly extensive) netgroup file:

allservers	\
(aramis.rutgers.edu,-,) \
(athos.rutgers.edu,-,) \
(porthos.rutgers.edu,-,) \
(dartagnan.rutgers.edu,-,) \
(planchet.rutgers.edu,-,) \
(richelieu.rutgers.edu,-,) \
(constance.rutgers.edu,-,) \
(coda.rutgers.edu,-,) \
(darkstar.rutgers.edu,-,) \

allclients \
dartclients richclients \
(tailchaser.rutgers.edu,-,) \
(mezzo.rutgers.edu,-,)\

dartclients	\
(wildcat.rutgers.edu,-,) \
(fokker.rutgers.edu,-,) \
(blackwidow.rutgers.edu,-,) \
(maestro.rutgers.edu,-,) \
(bearcat.rutgers.edu,-,) \
(profundo.rutgers.edu,-,) \
(fortress.rutgers.edu,-,) \
(charybdis.rutgers.edu,-,) \
(lightning.rutgers.edu,-,) \
(klaatu.rutgers.edu,-,) \

richclients	\
(gort.rutgers.edu,-,) \
(zeno.rutgers.edu,-,) \
(thunderbolt.rutgers.edu,-,) \
(fender.rutgers.edu,-,) \
(spitfire.rutgers.edu,-,) \
(cobra.rutgers.edu,-,) \
(marcin.rutgers.edu,-,) \
(nash.rutgers.edu,-,) \
(lgs.rutgers.edu,-,) \

endoffile	(-,-,-)

... as you see, not at all like /etc/group (which I had originally thought
too).  This example is grouping hosts for nfs mount permission. If you dig
down, it turns out netgroups are just a way to group hosts, or groups, or
users.  Mostly this comes in handy (for us, anyway) for /etc/exports.

Hope this helps,

Charles