PH DATABASE INFORMATION

The PH database is the repository of all user information related to account creation. This includes addresses, groups, and so forth. The PH database greatly reduces the time and overhead involved with creating and maintaining user accounts.

Files and directories associated with PH:

• /var/ph/: directory containing PH database
• account.cnf: File describing all fields used in database
• account.lck: Lock file for database.
• data/: dir containing backup copy of account.cnf
• new/: dir used for building a new database
• old/: dir to hold old copy of database when you install a new one
• /usr/local/bin/ph: remote query program
• /usr/local/libexec/qi: Database engine. Called from inetd or manually. Has permissions 4750, owner phadmin:ph.
• /usr/local/lib/ph/help/: dir containing PH help files.
• /usr/local/lib/ph/util/: dir containing PH utilities
• mdump: dump database

Building a new database

Assume the new user data is in "newdata". Of course you must qualify it if it is in a different directory.

You will build the database in /var/ph/new and move it into /var/ph

You must put "primes" in your path. This program is normally in /usr/games, but does not seem to exist in OSF. I compiled it from the NetBSD sources. It is currently in ~ksulliva/bin.

$ cd /var/ph/new
$ cp ../account.cnf .
$ /usr/local/lib/ph/util/sizedb account.cnf newdata (This returns a number which I'll call SIZE)
$ /usr/local/lib/ph/util/credb SIZE account
$ /usr/local/lib/ph/util/maked account < newdata
$ /usr/local/lib/ph/util/makei account
$ /usr/local/lib/ph/util/build -s account

Now we backup the old database and install the new one

$ cd /var/ph
$ mv account* old
$ mv new/account* .
$ touch account.lck
$ sudo chown -R phadmin.ph .

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Revision 1.1: April 29, 1996:CJR