MAKEDBM(8) — MAINTENANCE COMMANDS

NAME

makedbm − make a yellow pages dbm file

SYNOPSIS

makedbm [ −i yp_input_file ] [ −o yp_output_name ] [ −d yp_domain_name ] [ −m yp_master_name ] infile outfile
makedbm [ −u dbmfilename ]

DESCRIPTION

Makedbm takes infile and converts it to a pair of files in dbm(3X) format, namely outfile.pag and outfile.dir. Each line of the input file is converted to a single dbm 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 yellow pages to interpret #; makedbm does not itself treat it as a comment character. Infile can be −, in which case standard input is read.

Makedbm is meant to be used in generating dbm files for the yellow pages, and 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

−i Create a special entry with the key YP_INPUT_FILE.

−o Create a special entry with the key YP_OUTPUT_NAME.

−d Create a special entry with the key YP_DOMAIN_NAME.

−m Create a special entry with the key YP_MASTER_NAME.

−u Undo a dbm file. That is, print out a dbm 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 makedbm. For example,

#!/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 makedbm to make the yellow pages file passwd.byname. That is, the key is a username, and the value is the remaining line in the /etc/passwd file.

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