NSCD.CONF(5)                                                      NSCD.CONF(5)

NAME

       /etc/nscd.conf - name service cache daemon configuration file

DESCRIPTION

       The  file  /etc/nscd.conf  is  read  from nscd(8) at startup. Each line
       specifies either an attribute and a value, or  an  attribute,  service,
       and  a value. Fields are separated either by SPACE or TAB characters. A
       '#' (number sign) indicates the beginning of a comment; following char-
       acters, up to the end of the line, are not interpreted by nscd.

       Valid services are passwd, group, or hosts.

       logfile debug-file-name
              Specifies  name  of the file to which debug info should be writ-
              ten.

       debug-level value
              Sets the desired debug level.

       threads number
              This is the number of threads  that  are  started  to  wait  for
              requests. At least five threads will always be created.

       server-user user
              If  this  option  is  set, nscd will run as this user and not as
              root.  If a separate cache for every user is  used  (-S  parame-
              ter), this option is ignored.

       enable-cache service <yes|no>
              Enables or disables the specified service cache.

       positive-time-to-live service value
              Sets  the  TTL  (time-to-live)  for positive entries (successful
              queries) in the specified cache for service.  Value is  in  sec-
              onds.  Larger  values  increase  cache hit rates and reduce mean
              response times, but increase problems with cache coherence.

       negative-time-to-live service value
              Sets the TTL (time-to-live) for negative  entries  (unsuccessful
              queries)  in  the specified cache for service.  Value is in sec-
              onds. Can result  in  significant  performance  improvements  if
              there  are  several files owned by UIDs (user IDs) not in system
              databases (for example untarring the  linux  kernel  sources  as
              root);  should be kept small to reduce cache coherency problems.

       suggested-size service value
              This is the internal hash table  size,  value  should  remain  a
              prime number for optimum efficiency.

       check-files service <yes|no>
              Enables or disables checking the file belonging to the specified
              service for changes. The files are /etc/passwd, /etc/group,  and
              /etc/hosts.

       max-threads threads
              Specifies the maximum number of threads to be started.

       stat-user username
              Specifies the user who is allowed to request statistics.

       reload-count unlimited | number
              Limit  on the number of times a cached entry gets reloaded with-
              out being used before it gets removed. The default is 5.

       paranoia <yes|no>
              Enabling paranoia mode causes nscd to  restart  itself  periodi-
              cally.

       restart-interval time
              Sets the restart interval to time seconds if periodic restart is
              enabled by enabling paranoia mode.

       persistent service <yes|no>
              Keep the content of the cache for service over server  restarts;
              useful when paranoia mode is set.

       shared service <yes|no>
              The  memory  mapping of the nscd databases for service is shared
              with the clients so  that  they  can  directly  search  in  them
              instead  of having to ask the daemon over the socket each time a
              lookup is performend.

       reload-count unlimited|<number>
              Sets the number of times a cached record is reloaded  before  it
              is pruned from the cache.  Each cache record has a timeout, when
              that timeout expires, nscd will either reload it (query the  NSS
              service again if the data hasn't changed), or drop it.

       paranoia <yes|no>
              Enables or disables restart of nscd every restart-interval .

       restart-interval <time in seconds>
              Is  interval  in  which  nscd is restarted if option paranoia is
              set. The default value is 3600.

       persistent service <yes|no>
              Enables or disables  persistent  storage  of  data.   Persistent
              caches  are  stored  on  the  disk  and therefore survive a nscd
              restart or e.g. machine reboot.

       shared service <yes|no>
              Enables or disables database saring among nscd clients (by being
              read-only mmapped in their address space, so the nscd client can
              directly do the lookup and only if an entry is not found  there,
              ask nscd over socket to do the lookup).

SEE ALSO

       nscd(8)

AUTHOR

       nscd was written by Thorsten Kukuk and Ulrich Drepper.

GNU C Library                       1999-10                       NSCD.CONF(5)