Networking Guide
Chapter 7, Configuring the Network Information Service (NIS)

Propagating an NIS map

Propagating an NIS map

Propagating a map means moving it from place to place, generally from the NIS master server to an NIS slave or copy-only server. Initially, the map is moved at system startup. Maps are not propagated to clients because clients request map information from servers rather than storing the maps themselves.

After you initialize an NIS nonmaster server, ypxfr(NADM) transfers updated maps from the master server. The ypxfr command can be run in the following ways:

In all cases, ypxfr checks for a file in /etc/yp/map2ascii with the same name as the transferred map. If this file exists, it is executed as the last step of the ypxfr process. These map2ascii files translate the new map into its ASCII counterpart and install it in its proper place. map2ascii routines are supplied for the most commonly used maps. You can write other routines and place them in the directory for use on other maps.

You can capture ypxfr's transfer attempts and results in the logfile /usr/adm/nislog. If this file exists, results are appended to it. You are responsible for limiting the size of this file. To turn off logging, remove or rename this file. Refer to the ypxfr(NADM) manual page for more information about the logfile.

Methods for transferring updated maps are described in the following sections.