Linux in a Nutshell, Third Edition

Name

pcnfsd

Synopsis

/usr/sbin/rpc.pcnfsd

Description

NFS/NIS command. NFS authentication and print request server. pcnfsd is an RPC server that supports ONC clients on PC systems. pcnfsd reads the configuration file /etc/pcnfsd.conf, if present, then services RPC requests directed to program number 150001. This current release of the pcnfsd daemon (as of this printing) supports both Version 1 and Version 2 of the pcnfsd protocol. Requests serviced by pcnfsd fall into three categories: authentication, printing, and other. Only the authentication and printing services have administrative significance.

Authentication

When pcnfsd receives a PCNFSD_AUTH or PCNFSD2_AUTH request, it will log in the user by validating the username and password, returning the corresponding user ID, group IDs, home directory, and umask. At this time, pcnfsd will also append a record to the wtmp database. If you do not want to record PC logins in this way, add the line:

                     wtmp off

to the /etc/pcnfsd.conf file.

Printing

pcnfsd supports a printing model based on the use of NFS to transfer the actual print data from the client to the server. The client system issues a PCNFSD_PR_INIT or PCNFSD2_PR_INIT request, and the server returns the path to a spool directory that the client may use and that is exported by NFS. pcnfsd creates a subdirectory for each of its clients; the parent directory is normally /usr/spool/pcnfs and the subdirectory is the hostname of the client system. If you want to use a different parent directory, ...