nscd.8: Correct NOTES section on reloading configuration files

The original notes were obsolete, current nscd watches changes in config files.

Signed-off-by Petr Baudis <[email protected]>

man8/nscd.8 +27 -11

index ecbd9ba..987efcb 100644
@@ -17,7 +17,10 @@
 .\" write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330,
 .\" Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
 .\"
-.TH NSCD 8 1999-10-01 "GNU" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
+.\" 2008-12-05 Petr Baudis <[email protected]>
+.\"    Rewrite the NOTES section to reflect modern reality
+.\"
+.TH NSCD 8 2008-12-05 "GNU" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
 .SH NAME
 /usr/sbin/nscd \- name service cache daemon
 .SH DESCRIPTION

@@ -55,16 +58,29 @@ calls remain uncached as a result.
 .B "\-\-help"
 will give you a list with all options and what they do.
 .SH NOTES
-Nscd doesn't know anything about the underlying protocols for a
-service.
-This also means, that if you change
-.I /etc/resolv.conf
-for DNS queries, nscd will continue to use the old one if you have
-configured
-.I /etc/nsswitch.conf
-to use DNS for host lookups.
-In such a case, you need to restart
-nscd.
+The daemon will try to watch for changes in configuration files
+appropriate for each database (e.g.
+.I /etc/passwd
+for the
+.I passwd
+database or
+.IR "/etc/hosts " and " /etc/resolv.conf"
+for the
+.I hosts
+database) and flush the cache when these are changed.
+However, this will happen only after a short delay
+(unless the
+.BR inotify (7)
+mechanism is available and glibc-2.9 or newer is used)
+and this auto-detection does not cover configuration files
+required by non-standard NSS modules, if any are specified in
+.IR /etc/nsswitch.conf .
+In that case, you need to call
+.I nscd -i DATABASE
+after changing the configuration file of the database
+so that
+.B nscd
+invalidates its cache.
 .SH "SEE ALSO"
 .BR nscd.conf (5),
 .BR nsswitch.conf (5)

Quoted 2 lines · Petr Baudis

The original notes were obsolete, current nscd watches changes in config files.

Can you provide some supporting information here. Pointers to relevant sources, or email threads.

I think what I'm really meaning
is: could you write a nice changelog entry for this patch. Also, my reading of the patch is that you are changing the page because glibc changed at a certain point. If this is the case, it would be good to note in which glibc version the change occurred, and then it would be better to rewrite the page to describe old and new behaviors, rather than just dropping the text that describes the old behavior. Do you see what I mean?

The original notes were obsolete, current nscd watches changes in config files.

Signed-off-by Petr Baudis <[email protected]>

man8/nscd.8 +27 -11

index ecbd9ba..987efcb 100644
@@ -17,7 +17,10 @@
 .\" write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330,
 .\" Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
 .\"
-.TH NSCD 8 1999-10-01 "GNU" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
+.\" 2008-12-05 Petr Baudis <[email protected]>
+.\"    Rewrite the NOTES section to reflect modern reality
+.\"
+.TH NSCD 8 2008-12-05 "GNU" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
 .SH NAME
 /usr/sbin/nscd \- name service cache daemon
 .SH DESCRIPTION

@@ -55,16 +58,29 @@ calls remain uncached as a result.
 .B "\-\-help"
 will give you a list with all options and what they do.
 .SH NOTES
-Nscd doesn't know anything about the underlying protocols for a
-service.
-This also means, that if you change
-.I /etc/resolv.conf
-for DNS queries, nscd will continue to use the old one if you have
-configured
-.I /etc/nsswitch.conf
-to use DNS for host lookups.
-In such a case, you need to restart
-nscd.
+The daemon will try to watch for changes in configuration files
+appropriate for each database (e.g.
+.I /etc/passwd
+for the
+.I passwd
+database or
+.IR "/etc/hosts " and " /etc/resolv.conf"
+for the
+.I hosts
+database) and flush the cache when these are changed.
+However, this will happen only after a short delay
+(unless the
+.BR inotify (7)
+mechanism is available and glibc-2.9 or newer is used)
+and this auto-detection does not cover configuration files
+required by non-standard NSS modules, if any are specified in
+.IR /etc/nsswitch.conf .
+In that case, you need to call
+.I nscd -i DATABASE
+after changing the configuration file of the database
+so that
+.B nscd
+invalidates its cache.
 .SH "SEE ALSO"
 .BR nscd.conf (5),
 .BR nsswitch.conf (5)