UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

When you make changes to /etc/passwd on any platform, you have to map the NIS files again, usually by running a MAKE command. I know in Linux, you can use "make -C /var/yp".

If nothing else, you could just use /usr/lib/yp/ypinit -m to remap the master(or the equivalent directory) and /usr/lib/yp/ypinit -s MASTER SERVER on the slave server to synch it up with the master. Of course, I have always heard that that was not recommended.

You also might have needed to restart ypbind/ypserv.

Henrik,
Is your NIS server on the same system you were testing with?
TioTony

Thanks for the 2 replys lads.

The nis server (master) is machine 1, the sun client is machine 2, and the hpux client is machine 3. The password file having the entries made to it is on machine 2 so it is the local password files on the client and the clients nsswitch.conf file which is being altered. As there are no changes being made to the master ( i.e. all nis accounts remain unchanged) I don't believe any changes need to be made to remake the nis maps. It is just the clients ability to have access to the name service switch ( and subsequantly the maps) which is being tested.

I think I might know what is happening. After you make changes you should stop/restart the ypbind process on the client machine. If you change /etc/passwd, /etc/group, /etc/nsswitch.conf without stopping and restarting ypbind still has the info in it's memory to get the NIS map info. I ran into this today at work when I was removing a Sun system from NIS. After changing all the files, ypcat passwd still worked. Once I stopped/started ypbind again I could not longer ypcat.

Thanks for the tip Tony but it didn't work. I even went to the point of deleting the nsswitch.conf file and rebooting (which should both kill the ypbind daemon and remove any system state info) and I was still able to access nis acounts on the restart. I think I will send this to sun to see what they come up with