NSS allows to the users stored in the Vhffs database to be recognized by the system, so they could act as standart unix users and can connect through ssh, use svn, or FTP pure-ftpd.

Installation :

• Install debian packages

aptitude install libnss-pgsql1 nscd

• Create config file with the example provided:

cp /usr/share/doc/libnss-pgsql1/examples/nss-pgsql.conf /etc/nss-pgsql.conf

then edit it /etc/nss-pgsql.conf like this :

# example configfile for PostgreSQL NSS module

# these are entries as used with the BOFHMS tool (sf.net/projects/bofhms)
host            = localhost
port            = 5432
database        = vhffs
login           = vhffs
passwd          = *******
passwdtable     = vhffs_shadow
grouptable      = vhffs_groups

# you can use anything postgres accepts as table expression
groupmembertable = vhffs_passwd JOIN vhffs_user_group ON vhffs_passwd.uid=vhffs_user_group.uid JOIN vhffs_groups
ON vhffs_groups.gid=vhffs_user_group.gid

passwd_name     = username
passwd_passwd   = passwd
passwd_uid      = uid
passwd_dir      = homedir
passwd_shell    = shell

passwd_gecos    = username
passwd_gid      = gid
group_name      = groupname
group_passwd    = passwd
group_gid       = gid
group_member    = username

then edit the file /etc/nsswitch.conf and modify:

passwd:         compat  pgsql
group:          compat  pgsql
shadow:         compat  pgsql