NAME
     Apache::AuthenNIS - mod_perl NIS Authentication module

SYNOPSIS
         <Directory /foo/bar>
         # This is the standard authentication stuff
         AuthName "Foo Bar Authentication"
         AuthType Basic

         PerlAuthenHandler Apache::AuthenNIS

         # Set if you want to allow an alternate method of authentication
         PerlSetVar AllowAlternateAuth yes | no

         # Standard require stuff, NIS users or groups, and
         # "valid-user" all work OK
         require user username1 username2 ...
         require group groupname1 groupname2 ... # [Need Apache::AuthzNIS]
         require valid-user

         # The following is actually only needed when authorizing
         # against NIS groups. This is a separate module.
         PerlAuthzHandler Apache::AuthzNIS

         </Directory>

         These directives can also be used in the <Location> directive or in
         an .htaccess file.


DESCRIPTION
     This perl module is designed to work with mod_perl and the
     Net::NIS module by Rik Haris (rik.harris@fulcrum.com.au).
     It is a direct adaptation (i.e. I modified the code) of
     Michael Parker's (parker@austx.tandem.com) Apache::AuthenSmb
     module.

     The module uses Net::NIS::yp_match to retrieve the "passwd"
     entry from the passwd.byname map, using the supplied
     username as the search key.  It then uses crypt() to verify
     that the supplied password matches the retrieved hashed
     password.

     Apache::AuthenNIS vs. Apache::AuthzNIS

     I've taken "authentication" to be meaningful only in terms
     of a user and password combination, not group membership.
     This means that you can use Apache::AuthenNIS with the
     require user and require valid-user directives.  In the NIS
     context I consider require group to be an "authorization"
     concern.  I.e., Group authorization consists of establishing
     whether the already authenticated user is a member of one of
     the indicated groups in the require group directive.  This
     process can be handled by Apache::AuthzNIS.

     I welcome any feedback on this module, esp. code
     improvements, given that it was written hastily, to say the
     least.

     Parameters
     
     PerlSetVar AllowAlternateAuth

     This attribute allows you to set an alternative method of authentication
     (Basically, this allows you to mix authentication methods, if you don't have
     all users in the NIS database). It does this by returning a DECLINE and checking
     for the next handler, which could be another authentication, such as
     Apache-AuthenNTLM or basic authentication.
  

AUTHOR
     Demetrios E. Paneras <dep@media.mit.edu>
     Ported by Shannon Eric Peevey <speeves@unt.edu>

COPYRIGHT
     Copyright (c) 1998 Demetrios E. Paneras, MIT Media
     Laboratory.

     This library is free software; you can redistribute it
     and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.