=head1 NAME

pts - Introduction to the pts command suite

=head1 DESCRIPTION

The commands in the B<pts> command suite are the administrative interface
to the Protection Server, which runs on each database server machine in a
cell and maintains the Protection Database. The database stores the
information that AFS uses to augment and refine the standard UNIX scheme
for controlling access to files and directories.

Instead of relying only on the mode bits that define access rights for
individual files, AFS associates an access control list (ACL) with each
directory. The ACL lists users and groups and specifies which of seven
possible access permissions they have for the directory and the files it
contains. (It is still possible to set a directory or file's mode bits,
but AFS interprets them in its own way; see the chapter on protection in
the I<IBM AFS Administration Guide> for details.)

AFS enables users to define groups in the Protection Database and place
them on ACLs to extend a set of rights to multiple users simultaneously.
Groups simplify administration by making it possible to add someone to
many ACLs by adding them to a group that already exists on those
ACLs. Machines can also be members of a group, so that users logged into
the machine automatically inherit the permissions granted to the group.

There are several categories of commands in the pts command suite:

=over 4

=item *

Commands to create and remove Protection Database entries: B<pts
creategroup>, B<pts createuser>, and B<pts delete>.

=item *

Commands to administer and display group membership: B<pts adduser>, B<pts
listowned>, B<pts membership>, and B<pts removeuser>.

=item *

Commands to administer and display properties of user and group entries
other than membership: B<pts chown>, B<pts examine>, B<pts listentries>,
B<pts rename>, and B<pts setfields>.

=item *

Commands to set and examine the counters used when assigning IDs to users
and groups: B<pts listmax> and B<pts setmax>.

=item *

Commands to run commands interactively: B<pts interactive>, B<pts
sleep>, and B<pts quit>.

=item *

A command to run commands from a file: B<pts source>.

=item *

Commands to obtain help: B<pts apropos> and B<pts help>.

=back

=head1 OPTIONS

The following arguments and flags are available on many commands in the
B<pts> suite. The reference page for each command also lists them, but
they are described here in greater detail.

=over 4

=item B<-cell> <I<cell name>>

Names the cell in which to run the command. It is acceptable to abbreviate
the cell name to the shortest form that distinguishes it from the other
entries in the F</usr/vice/etc/CellServDB> file on the local machine. If
the B<-cell> argument is omitted, the command interpreter determines the
name of the local cell by reading the following in order:

=over 4

=item *

The value of the AFSCELL environment variable.

=item *

The local F</usr/vice/etc/ThisCell> file.

=back

=item B<-force>

Enables the command to continue executing as far as possible when errors
or other problems occur, rather than halting execution immediately.
Without it, the command halts as soon as the first error is
encountered. In either case, the B<pts> command interpreter reports errors
at the command shell. This flag is especially useful if the issuer
provides many values for a command line argument; if one of them is
invalid, the command interpreter continues on to process the remaining
arguments.

=item B<-help>

Prints a command's online help message on the standard output stream. Do
not combine this flag with any of the command's other options; when it is
provided, the command interpreter ignores all other options, and only
prints the help message.

=item B<-noauth>

Establishes an unauthenticated connection to the Protection Server, in
which the server treats the issuer as the unprivileged user
C<anonymous>. It is useful only when authorization checking is disabled on
the server machine (during the installation of a file server machine or
when the B<bos setauth> command has been used during other unusual
circumstances). In normal circumstances, the Protection Server allows only
privileged users to issue commands that change the Protection Database,
and refuses to perform such an action even if the B<-noauth> flag is
provided.

=back

=head1 PRIVILEGE REQUIRED

Members of the system:administrators group can issue all B<pts> commands
on any entry in the Protection Database.

Users who do not belong to the system:administrators group can list
information about their own entry and any group entries they own. The
privacy flags set with the B<pts setfields> command control access to
entries owned by other users.

=head1 SEE ALSO

L<pts_adduser(1)>,
L<pts_apropos(1)>,
L<pts_chown(1)>,
L<pts_creategroup(1)>,
L<pts_createuser(1)>,
L<pts_delete(1)>,
L<pts_examine(1)>,
L<pts_help(1)>,
L<pts_interactive(1)>,
L<pts_listentries(1)>,
L<pts_listmax(1)>,
L<pts_listowned(1)>,
L<pts_membership(1)>,
L<pts_quit(1)>,
L<pts_removeuser(1)>,
L<pts_rename(1)>,
L<pts_setfields(1)>,
L<pts_setmax(1)>,
L<pts_sleep(1)>,
L<pts_source(1)>

=head1 COPYRIGHT

IBM Corporation 2000. <http://www.ibm.com/> All Rights Reserved.

This documentation is covered by the IBM Public License Version 1.0.  It was
converted from HTML to POD by software written by Chas Williams and Russ
Allbery, based on work by Alf Wachsmann and Elizabeth Cassell.
