More and more, Linux machines are installed as part of a network of computers. To simplify network administration, most networks (mostly Sun-based networks) run the Network Information Service. Linux machines can take full advantage of existing NIS service or provide NIS service themselves. Linux machines can also act as full NIS+ clients, this support is in beta stage.
This document tries to answer questions about setting up NIS(YP) and NIS+ on your Linux machine. Don't forget to read the section about the RPC Portmapper
The NIS-Howto is edited and maintained by:
Thorsten Kukuk, kukuk@vt.uni-paderborn.de
The primary source of the information for the initial NIS-Howto was from:
Andrea Dell'Amico <adellam@ZIA.ms.it>
Mitchum DSouza <Mitch.DSouza@NetComm.IE>
Erwin Embsen <erwin@nioz.nl>
Peter Eriksson <peter@ifm.liu.se>
who we should thank for writing the first versions of this document.
You can always view the latest version of this on the World Wide Web via the URL http://sunsite.unc.edu/mdw/HOWTO/NIS-HOWTO.html.
New versions of this document will also be uploaded to various Linux WWW and FTP sites, including the LDP home page.
Links to translations of this document could be found at http://www-vt.uni-paderborn.de/~kukuk/linux/nis-howto.html.
Although this document has been put together to the best of our knowledge it may, and probably does contain errors. Please read any README files that are bundled with any of the various pieces of software described in this document for more detailed and accurate information. We will attempt to keep this document as error free as possible.
If you have questions or comments about this document, please feel free to mail Thorsten Kukuk, at kukuk@vt.uni-paderborn.de. I welcome any suggestions or criticisms. If you find a mistake with this document, please let me know so I can correct it in the next version. Thanks.
Please do not mail me questions about special problems with your Linux Distribution! I don't know every Linux Distribution. But I will try to add every solution you send me.
We would like to thank all the people who have contributed (directly or indirectly) to this document. In alphabetical order:
Byron A Jeff <byron@cc.gatech.edu>
Miquel van Smoorenburg <miquels@cistron.nl>
Theo de Raadt <deraadt@theos.com> is responsible for the original yp-clients code. Swen Thuemmler <swen@uni-paderborn.de> ported the yp-clients code to Linux and also ported the yp-routines in libc (again based on Theo's work). Thorsten Kukuk has written the NIS(YP) and NIS+ routines for GNU libc 2.x from scratch.