makemdbm(1M)                                                      makemdbm(1M)


NAME
     makemdbm, makedbm - make an NIS mdbm file

SYNOPSIS
     makemdbm [ -b ] [ -l ] [ -i yp_input_file ] [ -o yp_output_name ]
          [ -d yp_domain_name ] [ -m yp_master_name ] infile outfile
     makemdbm [ -u mdbmfilename ]

DESCRIPTION
     makemdbm takes infile and converts it to a file in mdbm(3B) format.  Each
     line of the input file is converted to a single mdbm record.  All
     characters up to the first tab or space form the key, and the rest of the
     line is the data.  If a line ends with \, then the data for that record
     is continued on to the next line.  It is left for the clients of the
     network information service (NIS) to interpret #; makedbm does not itself
     treat it as a comment character.  infile can be -, in which case standard
     input is read.

     makemdbm is meant to be used in generating mdbm files for NIS.  It
     generates a special entry with the key yp_last_modified, which is the
     date of infile (or the current time, if infile is -).

OPTIONS
     -l   Convert all uppercase characters in the keys to lowercase.

     -i yp_input_file
          Create a special entry with the key YP_INPUT_FILE.

     -o yp_output_name
          Create a special entry with the key YP_OUTPUT_NAME.

     -d yp_domain_name
          Create a special entry with the key YP_DOMAIN_NAME.

     -m yp_master_name
          Create a special entry with the key YP_MASTER_NAME.  If no master
          hostname is specified, yp_master_name is set to the local hostname.

     -u mdbmfilename
          Undo a mdbm file.  That is, print out a mdbm file one entry per
          line, with a single space separating keys from values.

EXAMPLE
     It is easy to write shell scripts to convert standard files such as
     /etc/passwd to the key value form used by makemdbm.  For example,

          #!/usr/bin/awk -f
          BEGIN { FS = ":"; OFS = "\t"; }
                { print $1, $0 }

     takes the /etc/passwd file and converts it to a form that can be read by
     makemdbm to make the NIS file passwd.byname.  That is, the key is a


     username, and the value is the remaining line in the /etc/passwd file.

SEE ALSO
     yppasswd(1), nis(1M), mdbm(3B).


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