The nisrmdir Command

The nisrmdir command can remove a directory or simply dissociate a replica server from a directory. (When a directory is removed or disassociated from a replica server, that machine no longer functions as an NIS+ replica server for that NIS+ domain.)

When it removes a directory, NIS+ first disassociates the master and replica servers from the directory, and then removes the directory.

• To remove the directory, you must have destroy rights to its parent directory.

• To dissociate a replica server from a directory, you must have modify rights to the directory.

If problems occur, see "Removal or Disassociation of NIS+ Directory from Replica Fails".

Removing a Directory

To remove an entire directory and dissociate its master and replica servers, use the nisrmdir command without any options:

nisrmdir directory-name
nisping domain

This example removes the manf.doc.com. directory from beneath the doc.com. directory:

rootmaster% nisrmdir manf.doc.com.
rootmaster% nisping doc.com.

Disassociating a Replica From a Directory

To disassociate a replica server from a directory, you must first remove the directory's org_dir and groups_dir subdirectories. To do this, use the nisrmdir command with the -s option. After each of the subdirectories are removed, you must run nisping on parent domain.

nisrmdir -s replicanameorg_dir.domain
nisrmdir -s replicanamegroups_dir.domain
nisrmdir -s replicaname domain
nisping domain

This example disassociates the manfreplica1 server from the manf.doc.com. directory:

rootmaster% nisrmdir -s manfreplica1 org_dir.manf.doc.com.
rootmaster% nisrmdir -s manfreplica1 groups_dir.manf.doc.com.
rootmaster% nisrmdir -s manfreplica1 manf.doc.com.
rootmaster% nisping manf.doc.com.

If the replica server you are trying to dissociate is down or out of communication, the nisrmdir -scommand returns a Cannot remove replicaname: attempt to remove a non-empty table error message. In such cases, you can run nisrmdir -f -s replicaname on the master to force the dissociation. Note, however, that if you use nisrmdir -f -s to dissociate an out-of-communication replica, you must run nisrmdir -f -s again as soon as the replica is back on line in order to clean up the replica's /var/nis file system. If you fail to rerun nisrmdir -f -s replicaname when the replica is back in service, the old out-of-date information left on the replica could cause problems.