Problem running 'top' when ldap is around

[Lowell Gilbert]

Stephen Allen <sdafreebsduk at rowyerboat.com> writes:

> I've noticed that with "files ldap" in nsswitch.conf, if I try to run
> "top" and the ldap server is not available, it takes about a minute to
> start showing information, whereas normally it's instantaneous.
>
> The problem seems to be the mapping of uid numbers to usernames (the
> -u 
> options prevents this).  The man page says:
>
> "Normally, top will read as much of the file "/etc/passwd" as is
> necessary to  map  all the user id numbers it encounters into login
> names"

The man page is misleading.  If LDAP or NIS are present, top seems to
grab all of the entries from there.  Changes to the man page should be
submitted upstream, if you're interested in that aspect.

> So my question is, top must be finding a uid number that it can't
> match in /etc/passwd, then going on to search ldap.  How can this be?

I'm not sure that top follows nsswitch.conf (but I didn't spend enough
time looking to be sure).  

I'm not sure I answered your question; if you are still wondering, can
you please reword the question?

-- 
Lowell Gilbert, embedded/networking software engineer, Boston area
		http://be-well.ilk.org/~lowell/