Table Entry Names

To identify an entry in an NIS+ table, you need to identify the table object and the entry within it. This type of name is called an indexed name. It has the following syntax:

[column=value,column=value,...],tablename

Column is the name of the table column. Value is the actual value of that column. Tablename is the fully qualified name of the table object. Here are a few examples of entries in the hosts table:

[addr=129.44.2.1,name=pine],hosts.org_dir.sales.doc.com. 
[addr=129.44.2.2,name=elm],hosts.org_dir.sales.doc.com. 
[addr=129.44.2.3,name=oak],hosts.org_dir.sales.doc.com.

You can use as few column-value pairs inside the brackets as required to uniquely identify the table entry.

Some NIS+ administrative commands accept variations on this syntax. For details, see the nistbladm, nismatch, and nisgrep commands in Part 2.