Naming and Directory Services (DNS, NIS, and LDAP)

TABLE 4–4 NIS Command SummaryCommandypservypbindypinitmakemakedbmypxfrypxfrdyppushypsetyppollypcatypmatchDescriptionServices NIS clients’ requests for information from an NIS map. ypservis a daemon that runs on NIS servers with a complete set of maps. Atleast one ypserv daemon must be present on the network for NISservice to function.Provides NIS server binding information to clients. It provides bindingby finding a ypserv process that serves maps within the domain of therequesting client. ypbind must run on all servers and clients.Automatically creates maps for an NIS server from the input files. It isalso used to construct the initial/var/yp/binding/domain/ypservers file on the clients. Useypinit to set up the master NIS server and the slave NIS servers for thefirst time.Updates NIS maps by reading the Makefile (when run in the /var/ypdirectory). You can use make to update all maps based on the input filesor to update individual maps. The ypmake(1M) man page describes thefunctionality of make for NIS.makedbm takes an input file and converts it into dbm.dir and dbm.pagfiles—valid dbm files that NIS can use as maps. You can also usemakedbm -u to disassemble a map, so that you can see the key-valuepairs that comprise it.Pulls an NIS map from a remote server to the local /var/yp/domaindirectory, using NIS itself as the transport medium. You can run ypxfrinteractively, or periodically from a crontab file. It is also called byypserv to initiate a transfer.Provides map transfers service for ypxfr requests (generally slaveservers). It is run only on the master server.Copies a new version of an NIS map from the NIS master server to itsslaves. You run it on the master NIS server.Tells a ypbind process to bind to a named NIS server. This is not forcasual use and its use is discouraged because of security implications.See the ypset(1M) and ypbind(1M) man pages for information aboutthe ypset and ypsetme options to the ypbind process.Tells which version of an NIS map is running on a server that youspecify. It also lists the master server for the map.Displays the contents of an NIS map.Prints the value for one or more specified keys in an NIS map. Youcannot specify which version of the NIS server map you are seeing.76 System Administration Guide: Naming and Directory Services (DNS, NIS, and LDAP) • January 2005