DragonFly On-Line Manual Pages
YP_MKDB(8) DragonFly System Manager's Manual YP_MKDB(8)
NAME
yp_mkdb -- generate the NIS databases
SYNOPSIS
yp_mkdb -c
yp_mkdb -u dbname
yp_mkdb [-c] [-b] [-s] [-f] [-i inputfile] [-o outputfile]
[-d domainname] [-m mastername] inputfile dbname
DESCRIPTION
The yp_mkdb utility creates db(3) style databases for use with
DragonFly's NIS server. The yp_mkdb utility reads data from inputfile,
and writes it to dbname in db(3) format (using the hash table method).
The input should be in 'key data' format, which is to say two fields of
ASCII data separated by white space. The first field is assumed to be
the key, and everything else is assumed to be the data. These databases
are typically stored in /var/yp/[domainname] where domainname is the name
of the NIS domain being served. The yp_mkdb utility is usually invoked
by /var/yp/Makefile. The yp_mkdb utility can also be used to dump an NIS
database file so that its contents can be examined. For security rea-
sons, all databases that yp_mkdb creates are readable and writable by
owner only (and usually the owner is root).
The following options are available:
-c Cause yp_mkdb to send a YPPROC_CLEAR request to ypserv(8) on the
local host. This signal tells the server to close any open data-
base descriptors and flush out its database cache. If used
alone, this flag signals the server and does nothing else. If
used as part of a database creation command, yp_mkdb will send
the signal only after the new database has been successfully cre-
ated.
-b Cause yp_mkdb to add a special entry to the database with a key
of YP_INTERDOMAIN and an empty data field. If this key is
present in a map, it alters the behavior of the 'match' procedure
in ypserv(8) slightly. If a match query fails (because the
server couldn't find a record that matched the supplied key), and
the YP_INTERDOMAIN key exists within the queried map, ypserv(8)
will try to match the entry again using a DNS lookup. Note that
this special behavior only applies to the hosts maps. Using the
-b flag for other maps has no effect.
-s This flag is used to add a special entry to the database with a
key of YP_SECURE and an empty data field. If this key is present
in a map, ypserv(8) will deny access to the map to any client
that is not using a reserved port for its query. This is used
mainly for the master.passwd maps, which should be restricted to
privileged access only.
-f This flag is used to turn on filtering of lines in the source
file input that start with ``+'' or ``-'' characters. These
characters have special meaning for the group, passwd and
master.passwd maps and hence should not be allowed to appear in
them as the first character of a key or datum. If the -f flag is
used, yp_mkdb will reject any source line that starts with a
``+'' or ``-'' character and issue a warning message displaying
the line that was dropped.
-u dbname
Dump (or 'unwind') an NIS database. This option can be used to
inspect the contents of an existing NIS database.
-i inputfile
When generating an NIS map, encode inputfile as a special entry
in the database with a key of YP_INPUT_FILE.
-o outputfile
When generating an NIS map, encode outputfile as a special entry
in the database with a key of YP_OUTPUT_FILE.
-d domainname
When generating an NIS map, encode domainname as a special entry
in the database with a key of YP_DOMAIN_NAME.
-m mastername
When generating an NIS map, encode mastername as a special entry
in the database with a key of YP_MASTER_NAME. This entry in the
database is frequently used by various NIS utilities to determine
the name of an NIS master server for a domain. By default,
yp_mkdb assumes that the local host is the NIS master; the -m
option is used to override this default.
FILES
/var/yp/Makefile the Makefile that calls yp_mkdb to build the NIS data-
bases
SEE ALSO
db(3), ypserv(8)
AUTHORS
Bill Paul <wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu>
DragonFly 3.5 March 12, 1996 DragonFly 3.5