Manual Pages  — YPINIT

On a master server, ypinit creates the /var/yp/$DOMAINNAME directory, the /var/yp/ypservers file, and calls /var/yp/Makefile to create and populate an initial set of NIS maps. The maps are created from local source files using the yp_mkdb(8) utility. The utility will prompt the user for a list of servers that support the specified domain; this list is used to populate the ypservers map.

On a slave server, ypinit creates the /var/yp/$DOMAINNAME, populates it with copies of the NIS maps from the master. The maps are obtained from the master using the ypxfr(8) utility. The ypinit utility obtains the list of maps to transfer in one of two ways: if the system is configured as an NIS client and is bound to the master server, ypinit is able to use the ypwhich(1) utility to obtain a list of maps exported by the master server. If the system is not configured as a client of the NIS master, ypinit uses a hardcoded list of maps, some of which may or may not actually exist on the master. The system administrator can edit the ypinit script and modify the map list if necessary. Otherwise, individual maps can be transferred manually from the master using ypxfr(8).