nistbladm and NIS+ Column Values

Column values are used to identify individual entries in tables using the format:

columname="value", \
 columnname="value", ...

Where:

• columname is the name of a table column.

• value is the contents of a particular cell within a column. That value is what identifies a table row. (When using column=value to create or modify table data, always enclose the value element in quotes.)

For example, suppose you had a hosts table that listed machine names and IP addresses.

mail

In this example, your could identify the altair entry (row) in three different ways using the column=value of:

• name=altair

• address=172.22.168.4

• name=altair,address=172.22.168.4

But notice in the table above that the machine regulus is multi-homed and has two IP addresses. In that case, the column=value of host=regulus identifies two rows.

To identify just the first regulus row, you would enter either:

• address=172.22.168.120 or

• address=172.22.168.120.,name=regulus,dnsmaster

Some nistbladm operations require that you enter a column=value pair for every column in the table.