Package: nscd Version: 2.41-12+deb13u3For nscd operations, in nss/nss_files/files-init.c in glibc [1] various files in /etc/ get registered with inotify.
The registration passage in the code of the referenced files and the list of files getting registered is this:
``` register_file (cb, pwddb, "/etc/passwd", 0); register_file (cb, grpdb, "/etc/group", 0); register_file (cb, hstdb, "/etc/hosts", 0); register_file (cb, hstdb, "/etc/resolv.conf", 1); register_file (cb, servdb, "/etc/services", 0); register_file (cb, netgrdb, "/etc/netgroup", 0); ```/etc/netgroup is not shipped by any package in Debian (afaict), so all systems using nscd probably show log messages such as the following (sorry, in German):
2026-09-01T21:15:31.641784+02:00 contentserver nscd: 1690546 Die inotify-basierte Überwachung für die Datei »/etc/netgroup« deaktiviert: Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden 2026-09-01T21:15:31.641941+02:00 contentserver nscd: 1690546 »stat« für die Datei »/etc/netgroup« ist fehlgeschlagen; weiterer Versuch folgt später: Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden
(basically a file not found error)The /etc/netgroup file is only needed if nsswitch.conf has a "netgroup: files [...]" in it, but even if the built-in files nss backend is not used in /etc/nsswitch.conf, the inotify registration is attempted (without checking if the file exists).
We stumbled over this issue in Debian Edu and our temp solution is to touch an empty /etc/netgroup during provisioning process of Debian Edu machines. But that's rather a work-around. See [2].
Mike[1] https://sources.debian.org/src/glibc/2.43-4/nss/nss_files/files-init.c?hl=49#L49
[2] #1146398 -- mike gabriel aka sunweaver (Debian Developer) mobile: +49 (1520) 1976 148 landline: +49 (4351) 486 14 27 GnuPG Fingerprint: 9BFB AEE8 6C0A A5FF BF22 0782 9AF4 6B30 2577 1B31 mail: [email protected], http://sunweavers.net
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