Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!usc!apple!sun-barr!newstop!texsun!convex!convex.convex.com!thurlow From: thurlow@convex.com (Robert Thurlow) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.nfs Subject: Re: NIS (YP) questions Keywords: NFS/NIS Message-ID: Date: 18 Oct 90 01:09:36 GMT References: <9101@b11.ingr.com> Sender: news@convex.com Lines: 27 In <9101@b11.ingr.com> rickh@b11.ingr.com (Rick Hopkins) writes: >When using NIS, can you override the password, uid, and gid fields in >the password file for NIS users? If you build a passwd on the client that doesn't have any lines that start with '+', you won't even reference NIS; it'll be like you're a standalone machine as far as password administration goes. The password routines in libc are written to only look to NIS when they read a '+' marker line from the local /etc/passwd file. The rules on how each flat file and map interact vary from case to case. >If you can override these fields, doesn't that defeat the purpose of NIS? Not at all; putting the password administration into NIS was meant to ease the task of system administration, not help sysadmins on master NIS servers become little Nazis :-) The idea is to rake together all common information into one place, and it's important to leave hooks for local control of passwords. It isn't important at all for something like /etc/hosts; you'd hate to have two different Internet addresses for a host running around. Rob T -- Rob Thurlow, thurlow@convex.com or thurlow%convex.com@uxc.cso.uiuc.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "This opinion was the only one available; I got here kind of late."