You do not have to stop and start NIS when changing NIS maps or the map source files.
Keep in mind the following.
Deleting a map or source file from an NIS master server does not automatically result in corresponding deletions from slave servers. You must delete maps and source files from slave servers by hand.
New maps do not automatically get pushed to existing slave servers. You must run ypxfr from the slaves.
Modifying and Using the Makefile
You can modify the Makefile provided by default in /var/yp to suit your needs. (Be sure to keep an unmodified copy of the original Makefile for future reference.) You can add or delete maps, and you can change the names of some of the directories.
To add a new NIS map, you must get copies of the ndbm files for the map into the /var/yp/domainname directory on each of the NIS servers in the domain. This is normally done for you by the Makefile. After deciding which NIS server is the master of the map, modify the Makefile on the master server so that you can conveniently rebuild the map. Different servers can be masters of different maps, but in most cases this leads to administrative confusion. Try to set only one server as the master of all maps.
Typically a human-readable text file is filtered through awk, sed, or grep to make it suitable for input to makedbm. Refer to the default Makefile for examples. See the make(1S) for general information about the make command.
Use the mechanisms already in place in the Makefile when deciding how to create dependencies that make will recognize. Be aware that make is very sensitive to the presence or absence of tabs at the beginning of lines within the dependency rules. A missing tab can invalidate an entry that is otherwise well formed.
Adding an entry to the Makefile involves the following.
Adding the name of the database to the all rule
Writing the time rule
Adding the rule for the database
For example, in order for the Makefile to work on automounter input files, you would have to add the auto_direct.time and auto_home.time maps to the NIS database.
To add these maps to the NIS database:
How to Modify the Makefile
Log in as a superuser.
Modify the line that starts with the word all by adding the name(s) of the database you want to add:
all: passwd group hosts ethers networks rpc services protocols \ netgroup bootparams aliases netid netmasks \ auto_direct auto_home auto_direct.time auto_home.time
The order of the entries is not relevant, but the blank space at the beginning of the continuation lines must be a Tab, not spaces.
Add the following lines at the end of the Makefile:
auto_direct: auto_direct.time auto_home: auto_home.time
Add an entry for auto_direct.time in the middle of the file.
auto_direct.time: $(DIR)/auto_direct @(while read L; do echo $$L; done < $(DIR)/auto_direct $(CHKPIPE)) | \ (sed -e "/^#/d" -e "s/#.*$$//" -e "/^ *$$/d" $(CHKPIPE)) | \ $(MAKEDBM) - $(YPDBDIR)/$(DOM)/auto_direct; @touch auto_direct.time; @echo "updated auto_direct"; @if [ ! $(NOPUSH) ]; then $(YPPUSH) auto_direct; fi @if [ ! $(NOPUSH) ]; then echo "pushed auto_direct"; fi
where
CHKPIPE makes certain that the operations to the left of the pipe (|) are successfully completed before piping the results to next commands. If the operations to the left of the pipe do not successfully complete, the process is terminated with a NIS make terminated message.
NOPUSH prevents the makefile from calling yppush to transfer the new map to the slave servers. If NOPUSH is not set, the push is done automatically.
The while loop at the beginning is designed to eliminate any backslash-extended lines in the input file. The sed script eliminates comment and empty lines.
The same procedure should be followed for all other automounter maps, such as auto_home, or any other nondefault maps.
# make mapname
Where mapname is the name of the map you want to make.
If you do not want the Makefile to produce maps for a specific database, edit the Makefile as follows.
Delete the name of the database from the all rule.
Delete or comment out the database rule for the database you want to delete.
For example, to delete the hosts database, the hosts.time entry should be removed.
Remove the time rule.
For example, to delete the hosts database, the hosts: hosts.time entry should be removed.
Remove the map from the master and slave servers.
Changing Makefile Macros/Variables
You can change the settings of the variables defined at the top of the Makefile by changing the value to the right of the equal sign (=). For instance, if you do not want to use the files located in /etc as input for the maps, but you would rather use files located in another directory, such as /var/etc/domainname, you should change f DIR from DIR=/etc to DIR=/var/etc/domainname. You should also change PWDIR from PWDIR=/etc to PWDIR=/var/etc/domainname.
The variables are the following.
DIR= The directory containing all of the NIS input files except passwd and shadow. The default value is /etc. Since it is not good practice to use the files in the master server's /etc directory as NIS input files, you should change this value.
PWDIR= The directory containing the passwd and shadow NIS input files. Since it is not good practice to use the files in the master server's /etc directory as NIS input files, you should change this value.
DOM= The NIS domain name. The default value of DOM is set using the domainname command. However, most NIS commands use the current machine's domain which is set in the machine's /etc/defaultdomain file.