NIS and NIS+ Comparison

Name space 

Has a flat on-hierarchical organization; centralized flat file database for each independent network domain  

Has a hierarchical organization; partitioned into directories to support each network subset or autonomous domain 

Data Storage Scheme 

Multiple bicolumn "maps" (files) having key-value pairs 

Multicolumn database with multiple, searchable columns 

Resource Access Across Domains 

Not supported 

Permitted for authorized users 

Privileges for  

Updating 

Updates require superuser privileges on master server 

Updates can be performed remotely by authorized users  

Update Process 

Updates require using make files on master servers 

Updates are performed easily through command-line interface 

Update  

Propagation 

Is administrator initiated and requires transfer of whole maps 

Automatic and high-performance updating via incremental transfer  

Security 

Database not secure 

Fine-grained access control to NIS+ directories, table column, and entries 

Commands and Functions Prefixes 

Prefixed by the letters yp, as in ypmatch(1) and ypcat(1)

Prefixed by the letters nis, as in nismatch(1) and nischown(1)