Mac OS X in a Nutshell

Chapter 12. Directory Services and NetInfo

Mac OS X machines use directory services to get information about their users and available network services. These are various programs and protocols that run on both your local machine and on other computers and devices networked to it, which accept queries about administrative information or broadcast the availability of network services.^[17] Mac OS X abstracts the usage and configuration of all these directory services into a single system called Open Directory.

This chapter introduces the fundamentals of Open Directory and the tools that Mac OS X makes available to work with it. It puts special emphasis on the NetInfo system, which Mac OS X uses to store and retrieve administrative information. Later chapters about administrative tasks (such as user account maintenance and setting up shared printing services) will cover specific applications of the NetInfo database and other Open Directory services.

Open Directory Overview

Open Directory is a Mac OS X technology that acts as a wrapper around various other protocols, some of which are particular to Macintosh computers, but all of which serve one of two general functions:

Administrative and user information

Your Mac needs an administrative database in order to know about the users that can access it, as well as what permissions they possess for running programs and owning files. On most Unix machines, this information lives in text files stored in out-of-the-way places like the /etc ...