NetInfo

Hierarchical, distributed database used to organize and access system and network configuration information
- equivalent to NIS, LDAP, Active Directory
- stores information about users, groups, mail aliases, hosts, NFS mounts, network printers, and more
- database organized into hierarchy of directories, with entries consisting of property and value(s)
- master/slave architecture for redundancy
Simple and powerful graphical administration apps
Easy-to-use command-line tools allow full control
- nidump, niload, niutil, nicl
lookupd
- name service lookup daemon
- queries name services (NetInfo, DNS, YP, LDAP, etc.) on behalf of client processes
Tips
- Local files *are not used* except in single-user mode
- NetInfo queries and transfers made in the clear, and there's no secure authentication (yet)
- Very fine-grained access permissions can be set to various parts of the database
- Database files contained within /var/db/netinfo/

Hierarchical, distributed database used to organize and access system and network configuration information