NDB(1)

📦 version 0_git20260208, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling, nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable

🦋 NDB(1) — network database 🦋

okay so this is from the General Commands Manual, and the manual name is NDB(1). the whole command squad is ndbquery, ndbmkhash, ndbmkdb, ndbipquery, and ndbmkhosts, and they’re all about the network database. iykyk 💅

🌸 NAME 🌸

  • ndbquery, ndbmkhash, ndbmkdb, ndbipquery, ndbmkhosts — network database

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

ndbquery [ -f dbfile ] attr value [ rattr ]
ndbipquery attr value rattr...
ndbmkhash file attr
ndbmkdb

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

The network database holds administrative information used by authdial (see authsrv(3)) and secstored(1). literally the admin-info vault of the network, bestie.

ndbquery searches the database for an attribute of type attr and value value. If rattr is not specified, all entries matched by the search are returned. If rattr is specified, the value of the first pair with attribute rattr of all the matched entries is returned.

ndbipquery uses ndbipinfo (see ndb(3)) to search for the values of the attributes rattr corresponding to the system with entries of attribute type attr and value value.

ndbmkhash creates a hash file for all entries with attribute attr in database file file. The hash files are used by ndbquery and by the ndb library routines. hash girl summer, but make it infrastructure.

ndbmkdb is used in concert with awk(1) scripts to convert uucp systems files and IP host files into database files. It is very specific to the situation at Murray Hill. like, Murray Hill-specific-specific, no cap.

when the database files change underfoot, running programs track them properly. nonetheless, to keep the database searches efficient it is necessary to run ndbmkhash whenever the files are modified. it may be profitable to control this by a frequent cron(8) job. so if you edit, you rehash — that’s the lore.

ndbmkhosts generates BSD style hosts, hosts.txt, and hosts.equiv files from ndb data base files specified on the command line (default /ndb/local and /ndb/friends). It only processes hosts whose domain names end in domname. The output files are named db.domname, equiv.domname, and txt.domname. For historical reasons, the default domname is research.att.com.

🌈 EXAMPLE 🌈

like, look at this iconic little query:

% ndbquery sys helix
sys=helix dom=helix.research.bell-labs.com bootf=/mips/9powerboot
     ip=135.104.117.31 ether=080069020427
     proto=il

🎀 FILES 🎀

  • /ndb/local — first database file searched
  • /ndb/local.* — hash files for /ndb/local

🫶 SOURCE 🫶

  • /src/cmd/ndb

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

that’s a wrap, bestie — source is /src/cmd/ndb, footer/version tag is NDB(1), and there’s no date printed, so we move 🎀✨💅

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