ypfiles(4) ypfiles(4)
NAME [Toc] [Back]
ypfiles - Network Information Service database and directory structure
DESCRIPTION [Toc] [Back]
Remarks
The Network Information Service (NIS) was formerly known as
Yellow Pages (yp). Although the name has changed, the
functionality of the service remains the same.
The Network Information Service (NIS) network lookup service uses
databases in the directory hierarchy under /var/yp. These databases
exist only on machines that act as NIS servers. A database consists
of two files created by makedbm (see makedbm(1M)). One has the
filename extension .pag and the other has the filename extension .dir.
For example, the database named netgroup is implemented by the pair of
files netgroup.pag and netgroup.dir. A database served by the NIS is
called an NIS map.
An NIS domain is a named set of Network Information Service maps.
Each NIS domain is implemented as a subdirectory of /var/yp (whose
name is the domain name) and contains the maps for that domain. Any
number of NIS domains can exist, and each can contain any number of
maps.
Besides the databases contained in /var/yp/domain, master NIS servers
have files named general_NIS_mapname.time that reside there, too.
These files are merely empty files whose times of last modification
are compared with those of the ASCII files from which the maps are
built. The ypmake script performs these comparisons to determine
whether the maps are current (see ypmake(1M)). The
general_NIS_mapname designation is described further in the FILES
section below.
The NIS lookup service does not require maps, although maps may be
required for the normal operation of other parts of the system. The
list of maps an NIS server provides access to is neither restricted
nor must it be all-inclusive. If a map exists in a given domain and a
client asks about it, the NIS serves it. For a map to be consistently
accessible, it must exist on all NIS servers that serve the domain.
To provide data uniformity between the replicated maps, make an entry
to run ypxfr periodically in root's crontab file on each server (see
ypxfr(1M) and crontab(1)). More information on this topic is in
yppush(1M) and ypxfr(1M).
NIS maps contain two special key-value pairs. The first key,
NIS_LAST_MODIFIED, has a 10-character (ASCII) order number as a value.
The order number is the time() in seconds when the map was built (see
time(2)). The second key is NIS_MASTER_NAME, whose value is the host
name of the map's master NIS server. The makedbm command generates
both key-value pairs automatically. The ypxfr command uses these
values when it transfers a map from one NIS server to another.
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ypfiles(4) ypfiles(4)
Generate and modify NIS maps only on the master server. They are
copied to the slaves using ypxfr to avoid potential byte-ordering
problems among NIS servers running on machines with different
architectures, and to minimize the disk space required for the
databases (see ypxfr(1M)). NIS databases can be created initially for
both masters and slaves by using ypinit (see ypinit(1M)).
After servers' databases are created, the contents of some maps will
change. Generally, an ASCII source version of each database exists on
the master, and is changed with a text editor. The NIS map is rebuilt
to include the changes, and propagated from the master to the slaves
by running the ypmake shell script (see ypmake(1M)).
All standard NIS maps are built by commands contained in the ypmake
script or the NIS Makefile. If you add a non-standard NIS map, edit
the ypmake script or Makefile to support the new map (standard NIS
maps are discussed under FILES below). ypmake and Makefile use
makedbm to generate the NIS maps on the master and may run yppush to
copy the rebuilt maps to the slaves (see yppush(1M)). The yppush
command reads the map named ypservers that contains the host names of
all NIS servers for the specific domain. For more information, see
ypmake(1M), yppush(1M), and ypxfr(1M).
DEPENDENCIES [Toc] [Back]
If /var/yp is in a file system that does not allow file names longer
than 14 characters and you want to create a new non-standard map for
the Network Information Service, its name must not exceed 10
characters in length. This rule exists because makedbm adds the 4-
character suffixes .dir and .pag to any mapname.
The following table describes the translation of standard NIS mapnames
to shorter names for storage on a 14-character filename file system.
The standard mapnames should be used by NIS clients on HP machines
when making requests, regardless of which machine is the NIS server.
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ypfiles(4) ypfiles(4)
____________________________________________
Standard NIS Mapname Abbreviated Mapname
|_____________________|_____________________|
|mail.aliases | mail.alias |
|mail.byaddr | mail.byad |
|ethers.byaddr | ether.byad |
|ethers.byname | ether.byna |
|group.bygid | group.bygi |
|group.byname | group.byna |
| | |
|hosts.byaddr | hosts.byad |
|hosts.byname | hosts.byna |
|netgroup | netgroup |
|netgroup.byhost | netgr.byho |
|netgroup.byuser | netgr.byus |
|netid.byname | netid.byn |
|networks.byaddr | netwk.byad |
|networks.byname | netwk.byna |
|passwd.byname | passw.byna |
|passwd.byuid | passw.byui |
|protocols.byname | proto.byna |
|protocols.bynumber | proto.bynu |
|publickey.byname | pbkey.byna |
|rpc.byname | rpc.byna |
|rpc.bynumber | rpc.bynu |
|services.byname | servi.byna |
|auto.master | auto.mast |
|ypservers | ypservers |
|_____________________|_____________________|
AUTHOR [Toc] [Back]
ypfiles was developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc.
FILES [Toc] [Back]
The following table presents information about the standard Network
Information Service maps.
The General NIS Mapname column lists names for sets of NIS maps; the
sets include adjacent entries from the Standard NIS Mapname column.
The ASCII Source column lists the ASCII files from which the maps are
usually built on HP master NIS servers. The ypmake script permits the
source directory, or file in the case of the passwd maps, to vary.
The Standard NIS Mapname column lists names by which maps are stored
on NIS servers and referred to by NIS clients.
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_____________________________________________________
|General NIS | | Standard NIS |
|Mapname | ASCII Source | Mapname |
|____________|__________________|____________________|
|aliases | /etc/mail/aliase | mail.aliases |
| | | mail.byaddr |
|ethers | * | ethers.byaddr |
| | | ethers.byname |
|group | /etc/group | group.byname |
| | | group.bygid |
|hosts | /etc/hosts | hosts.byname |
| | | hosts.byaddr |
|netgroup | /etc/netgroup | netgroup |
| | | netgroup.byhost |
| | | netgroup.byuser |
|netid | /etc/netid | netid.byname |
|networks | /etc/networks | network.byaddr |
| | | network.byname |
|passwd | /etc/passwd | passwd.byname |
| | | passwd.byuid |
|protocols | /etc/protocols | protocols.byname |
| | | protocols.bynumber |
|publickey | /etc/publickey | publickey.byname |
|rpc | /etc/rpc | rpc.byname |
| | | rcp.bynumber |
|services | /etc/services | servi.bynp |
| | | services.byname |
|automounter | /etc/auto_master | auto.master |
|ypservers | *** | ypservers |
|____________|__________________|____________________|
* These databases are not built on HP master Network
Information Service servers. However, if an HP machine is a
slave to a master NIS server that creates and distributes
these databases, the HP slave NIS server will store these
databases. It is suggested that if you have a non-HP
machine that requires these maps, make that machine the
master NIS server. By doing this, the maps should be built
as needed.
*** No ASCII source exists for the ypservers database. It is
created from responses provided by the user of ypinit on the
master NIS server, and it has no matching ypservers.time
file.
SEE ALSO [Toc] [Back]
domainname(1), makedbm(1M), rpcinfo(1M), ypinit(1M), ypmake(1M),
yppoll(1M), yppush(1M), ypserv(1M), ypxfr(1M).
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