User Commands                                           niscat(1)

NAME
     niscat - display NIS+ tables and objects

SYNOPSIS
     niscat [ -AhLMv ]  [ -s sep ]  tablename ...

     niscat [ -ALMP ]  -o name ...

DESCRIPTION
     In the first synopsis, niscat displays the contents  of  the
     NIS+  tables named by  tablename. In the second synopsis, it
     displays the internal representation  of  the  NIS+  objects
     named by name.

OPTIONS
     The following options are supported:

     -A    Display the data within the table and all of  the data
           in tables in the initial table's concatenation path.

     -h    Display the header line prior to displaying the table.
           The  header  consists of the `#' (hash) character fol-
           lowed by the name of each column. The column names are
           separated by the table separator character.

     -L    Follow  links.  When  this  option  is  specified,  if
           tablename or name names a  LINK type object,  the link
           is followed and the object or table named by the  link
           is displayed.

     -M    Master server only. This  option  specifies  that  the
           request  should  be  sent  to the master server of the
           named data. This guarantees that the  most  up-to-date
           information   is  seen  at  the  possible  expense  of
           increasing the load on the master server and  increas-
           ing the possibility of the  NIS+ server being unavail-
           able or busy for updates.

     -P    Follow concatenation path. This option specifies  that
           the request should  follow the concatenation path of a
           table if the  initial  search  is  unsuccessful.  This
           option  is  only useful when using an indexed name for
           name and the -o option.

     -v    Display binary data  directly.  This  option  displays
           columns containing binary data on the standard output.
           Without this option binary data is  displayed  as  the
           string  *BINARY*.

     -o name
           Display the internal representation of the named  NIS+
           object(s).   If   name   is   an   indexed  name  (see

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User Commands                                           niscat(1)

           nismatch(1)), then each of the matching entry  objects
           is  displayed.  This  option is used to display access
           rights and other attributes of individual columns.

     -s sep
           This option specifies the character to use to separate
           the  table columns.  If no character is specified, the
           default separator for the table is used.

EXAMPLES
     Example 1: Examples of the niscat command

     This example displays the contents of the hosts table.

     example% niscat -h hosts.org_dir
     # cname   name addr comment
     client1   client1   129.144.201.100     Joe Smith
     crunchy   crunchy   129.144.201.44 Jane Smith
     crunchy   softy     129.144.201.44

     The string  *NP* is returned in those fields where the  user
     has insufficient access rights.

     Display the passwd.org_dir on the standard output.

     example% niscat passwd.org_dir

     Display the contents of table frodo and the contents of  all
     tables in its concatenation path.

     example% niscat -A frodo

     Display the entries in the  table   groups.org_dir  as  NIS+
     objects. Note that the brackets are protected from the shell
     by single quotes.

     example% niscat -o '[ ]groups.org_dir'

     Display the table object of the passwd.org_dir table.

     example% niscat -o passwd.org_dir

     The previous example displays the passwd  table  object  and
     not  the  passwd table. The table object include information
     such as the number of columns, column  type,  searchable  or
     not searchable separator, access rights, and other defaults.

     Display the directory object  for  org_dir,  which  includes
     information  such  as the access rights and replica informa-
     tion.

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User Commands                                           niscat(1)

     example% niscat -o org_dir

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
     NIS_PATH
           If this variable is set, and the NIS+  table  name  is
           not  fully qualified, each directory specified will be
           searched  until  the  table  is  found   (see   nisdefaults(1)
           ).

EXIT STATUS
     niscat returns the following values:

     0     Successful completion

     1     An error occurred.

ATTRIBUTES
     See attributes(5) for descriptions of the  following  attri-
     butes:

     ____________________________________________________________
    |       ATTRIBUTE TYPE        |       ATTRIBUTE VALUE       |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | Availability                | SUNWnisu                    |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|

SEE ALSO
     nis+(1),    nisdefaults(1),    nismatch(1),    nistbladm(1),
     nis_objects(3NSL), nis_tables(3NSL), attributes(5)

NOTES
     Columns without values in the table  are  displayed  by  two
     adjacent separator characters.

SunOS 5.8           Last change: 13 Sep 1996                    3