title: What are "Positive entries" and "Negative entries" in NSCD (Named Service Cache Deamon) for FreeIPA
body: <p>The "Positive entries" and "Negative entries" stats are in the nscd -g command under "hosts cache" section. From the nscd.conf manual, I see that "positive entries are successful queries in the specified cache" and "negative entries (unsuccessful queries) in the specified cache".
  But, how can a unsuccessful query(negative entry) in cache have hits(cache hits on negative entries), when the query itself means it can't find the value in cache... Can't understand the difference between those two..
  Can some please explain them in simple terms?</p>
  
  <p>{code}</p>
  
  <pre><code>          "hosts cache:
            yes  cache is enabled
            yes  cache is persistent
            yes  cache is shared
            211  suggested size
         216064  total data pool size
          12880  used data pool size
           3600  seconds time to live for positive entries
             20  seconds time to live for negative entries
         102658  cache hits on positive entries
            221  cache hits on negative entries
         129187  cache misses on positive entries
          10926  cache misses on negative entries
             42% cache hit rate
             74  current number of cached values
            167  maximum number of cached values
              8  maximum chain length searched
              0  number of delays on rdlock
              0  number of delays on wrlock
              0  memory allocations failed
            yes  check /etc/hosts for changes"
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>{code}</p>