On Sun, 25 Apr 1999 18:21:00 +1000  Simon Burge wrote:

> Without looking at your fix, is there scope for a user name being
> returned more that once if it exists in more than one source?  Is
> there a standard for getpwent() that defines this behaviour?

UNIX 98 is silent on the issue.  Since UNIX 98 is derived from UNIX
95, SPEC 1170, POSIX and SVID this suggests nobody has defined
"expected behaviour" in this situation.  Fairly typical. ;-)

The HP-UX manual pages don't say anything either.

I suggest that if an entry appears in multiple databases it be
returned multiple times, since anything else is not particularly
scalable.

I haven't tested any implementations.  I think Solaris invented
nsswitch.conf so anyone looking for precedent should probably look
there first.

Regards,

Giles

P.S. The UNIX 98 and UNIX 95 standards are online at www.opengroup.org
and at least UNIX 98 can be downloaded in HTML form.  (The exact URL
to download has moved around a bit.)

HP-UX manual pages are online at docs.hp.com.  Does anyone know if the
Solaris manual pages are online anywhere?