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Solaris Naming Setup and Configuration Guide

Adding Compatibility With +/- Syntax

This task describes how to add compatibility with the +/- syntax used in /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, and /etc/group files when you are using either NIS or NIS+ as your primary naming service.

Here is a list of the steps:

  1. Log in as superuser.

  2. Open the /etc/nsswitch.conf file.

  3. Change the passwd and group sources to compat.

  4. Add + or + netgroup to /etc/passwd,, /etc/shadow, and /etc/group.

  5. Save the file and reboot the workstation.

Security Considerations

You must perform this operation as superuser.

Note -

Users working on a client machine being served by a NIS+ server running in NIS compatibility mode cannot run ypcat on the netgroup table. Doing so will give you results that indicate the table is empty, even if it has entries.

How to Add DNS Compatibility With +/- Syntax

  1. Log in as superuser.

  2. Open the /etc/nsswitch.conf file.

  3. Change the passwd and groups sources to compat.

    • For use with NIS, enter:


      passwd: compat
group: compat

    • For NIS+, enter:


      passwd: compat
passwd_compat: nisplus
group: compat
group_compat: nisplus

    This provides the same syntax as in the Solaris 1.x release: it looks up /etc files and NIS maps as indicated by the +/- entries in the files.

  4. Add -+ or -+ netgroup to /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, and /etc/group files.

    Caution - Caution -

    If you fail to add the -+ or -+ netgroup entries to /etc/shadow and /etc/passwd, you won't be able to log in.

  5. Save the file and reboot the workstation.

    Because some library routines do not periodically check the nsswitch.conf file to see whether it has been changed, you must reboot the workstation to make sure those routines have the latest information in the file.