SSSD-FILES(5) File Formats and Conventions SSSD-FILES(5)
NAME
sssd-files - SSSD files provider
DESCRIPTION
This manual page describes the files provider for sssd(8). For a
detailed syntax reference, refer to the “FILE FORMAT” section of the
sssd.conf(5) manual page.
The files provider mirrors the content of the passwd(5) and group(5)
files. The purpose of the files provider is to make the users and
groups traditionally only accessible with NSS interfaces also available
through the SSSD interfaces such as sssd-ifp(5).
Another reason is to provide efficient caching of local users and
groups.
Please note that some distributions enable the files domain
automatically, prepending the domain before any explicitly configured
domains. See enable_files_domain in sssd.conf(5).
SSSD never handles resolution of user/group "root". Also resolution of
UID/GID 0 is not handled by SSSD. Such requests are passed to next NSS
module (usually files).
When SSSD is not running or responding, nss_sss returns the UNAVAIL
code which causes the request to be passed to the next module.
CONFIGURATION OPTIONS
In addition to the options listed below, generic SSSD domain options
can be set where applicable. Refer to the section “DOMAIN SECTIONS” of
the sssd.conf(5) manual page for details on the configuration of an
SSSD domain. But the purpose of the files provider is to expose the
same data as the UNIX files, just through the SSSD interfaces.
Therefore not all generic domain options are supported. Likewise, some
global options, such as overriding the shell in the “nss” section for
all domains has no effect on the files domain unless explicitly
specified per-domain.
passwd_files (string)
Comma-separated list of one or multiple password filenames to be
read and enumerated by the files provider, inotify monitor watches
will be set on each file to detect changes dynamically.
Default: /etc/passwd
group_files (string)
Comma-separated list of one or multiple group filenames to be read
and enumerated by the files provider, inotify monitor watches will
be set on each file to detect changes dynamically.
Default: /etc/group
fallback_to_nss (boolean)
While updating the internal data SSSD will return an error and let
the client continue with the next NSS module. This helps to avoid
delays when using the default system files /etc/passwd and
/etc/group and the NSS configuration has 'sss' before 'files' for
the 'passwd' and 'group' maps.
If the files provider is configured to monitor other files it makes
sense to set this option to 'False' to avoid inconsistent behavior
because in general there would be no other NSS module which can be
used as a fallback.
Default: True
EXAMPLE
The following example assumes that SSSD is correctly configured and
files is one of the domains in the [sssd] section.
[domain/files]
id_provider = files
To leverage caching of local users and groups by SSSD nss_sss module
must be listed before nss_files module in /etc/nsswitch.conf.
passwd: sss files
group: sss files
SEE ALSO
sssd(8), sssd.conf(5), sssd-ldap(5), sssd-krb5(5), sssd-simple(5),
sssd-ipa(5), sssd-ad(5), sssd-files(5), sssd-sudo(5), sssd-session-
recording(5), sss_cache(8), sss_debuglevel(8), sss_obfuscate(8),
sss_seed(8), sssd_krb5_locator_plugin(8), sss_ssh_authorizedkeys(8),
sss_ssh_knownhostsproxy(8), sssd-ifp(5), pam_sss(8). sss_rpcidmapd(5)
sssd-systemtap(5)
AUTHORS
The SSSD upstream - https://github.com/SSSD/sssd/
SSSD 02/09/2025 SSSD-FILES(5)
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