Setting Up an NIS Client with GNU libc
We will now describe and discuss the configuration of an NIS client using the GNU libc library support.
Your first step should be to tell the GNU libc NIS client which server to use
for NIS service. We mentioned earlier that the Linux ypbind
allows you to configure the NIS server to use. The default behavior is to
query the server on the local network. If the host you are configuring is
likely to move from one domain to another, such as a laptop, you
would leave the /etc/yp.conf
file empty and it would
query on the local network for the local NIS server wherever it happens to be.
A more secure configuration for most hosts is to set the server name in the
/etc/yp.conf
configuration file. A very simple file for a
host on the Winery’s network may look like this:
# yp.conf - YP configuration for GNU libc library. # ypserver vbardolino
The ypserver
statement tells your host
to use the host supplied as the NIS server for the local domain. In this
example we’ve specified the NIS server as vbardolino. Of course, the IP address corresponding to
vbardolino must be set
in the hosts
file; alternatively, you may use the
IP address itself with the server
argument.
In the form shown in the example, the
ypserver command tells
ypbind to use the named server regardless of what the
current NIS domain may be. If, however, you are moving your machine between
different NIS domains frequently, you may want to keep information for several
domains in the yp.conf ...
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