System Administration Guide: Naming and Directory Services (NIS+)

NIS+ Tables and Other Name Services

In the Solaris system the name service switch file (nsswitch.conf) allows you to specify one or more sources for different types of namespace information. In addition to NIS+ tables, sources can be NIS maps, DNS zone files, or /etc tables. The order in which you specify them in the switch file determines how the information from different sources is combined. (See Chapter 1, Name Service Switch for more information on the switch file.)