:mod:`nis` --- Interface to Sun's NIS (Yellow Pages)
.. module:: nis :platform: Unix :synopsis: Interface to Sun's NIS (Yellow Pages) library.
.. moduleauthor:: Fred Gansevles <Fred.Gansevles@cs.utwente.nl>
.. sectionauthor:: Moshe Zadka <moshez@zadka.site.co.il>
The :mod:`nis` module gives a thin wrapper around the NIS library, useful for central administration of several hosts.
Because NIS exists only on Unix systems, this module is only available for Unix.
The :mod:`nis` module defines the following functions:
.. function:: match(key, mapname, domain=default_domain) Return the match for *key* in map *mapname*, or raise an error (:exc:`nis.error`) if there is none. Both should be strings, *key* is 8-bit clean. Return value is an arbitrary array of bytes (may contain ``NULL`` and other joys). Note that *mapname* is first checked if it is an alias to another name. The *domain* argument allows overriding the NIS domain used for the lookup. If unspecified, lookup is in the default NIS domain.
.. function:: cat(mapname, domain=default_domain) Return a dictionary mapping *key* to *value* such that ``match(key, mapname)==value``. Note that both keys and values of the dictionary are arbitrary arrays of bytes. Note that *mapname* is first checked if it is an alias to another name. The *domain* argument allows overriding the NIS domain used for the lookup. If unspecified, lookup is in the default NIS domain.
.. function:: maps(domain=default_domain) Return a list of all valid maps. The *domain* argument allows overriding the NIS domain used for the lookup. If unspecified, lookup is in the default NIS domain.
.. function:: get_default_domain() Return the system default NIS domain.
The :mod:`nis` module defines the following exception:
.. exception:: error An error raised when a NIS function returns an error code.