System Administration Guide: Naming and Directory Services (DNS, NIS, and LDAP)

Modifying Maps Made From Standard Input

If you later need to modify the map, you can use makedbm to disassemble the map and create a temporary text intermediate file. To disassemble the map and create a temporary file, type the following.

% cd /var/yp

% makedbm -u homedomain/mymap > mymap.temp

The resulting temporary file mymap.temp has one entry per line. You can edit this file as needed, using any text editor.

To update the map, give the name of the modified temporary file to makedbm by typing the following.

% makedbm mymap.temp homedomain/mymap

% rm mymap.temp

Then propagate the map to the slave servers, by becoming root and typing the following.

# yppush mymap

The preceding paragraphs explained how to use makedbm to create maps; however, almost everything you actually have to do can be done by ypinit and Makefile unless you add nondefault maps to the database or change the set of NIS servers after the system is already up and running.

Whether you use the Makefile in /var/yp or some other procedure the goal is the same. Anew pair of well-formed dbm files must end up in the maps directory on the master server.