Re: [PATCH] nsswitch extensions + caching

On Tue, Dec 06, 2005 at 11:33:17AM -0800, Brooks Davis wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 06, 2005 at 10:46:26AM -0800, Julian Elischer wrote:
> > Michael Bushkov wrote:
> > [...]
> > 
> > so, I've been wonderring.. what's all the fuss about nsswitch?
> > what does it get us?
> 
> It gives us the ability use modules to provide arbitrary backends for a
> variety of interfaces to system databases.  For instance getpw*(),
> gethost*(), etc.

Or put it another way - it supplies the missing half to PAM.

Whilst PAM can check your password using arbitary backend modules, it can't
return your $HOME directory or the uid/gid to use.

Regards,

Brian.