System Administration Guide: Naming and Directory Services (FNS and NIS+)

NIS and NIS+ Command Equivalents in the Solaris 1, Solaris 2, and Solaris 9 Releases

The tables in this section give a quick overview of the differences between NIS commands running in the Solaris 1 operating environment, NIS commands running in the Solaris 2 or Solaris 9 operating environment, and their NIS+ equivalents.

NIS Commands Supported in the Solaris 2 and Solaris 9 Releases

Only some NIS commands are supported in the Solaris 2 and Solaris 9 releases. NIS server commands are not shipped with the Solaris 2 and Solaris 9 releases. Only the NIS client commands are included. Whether these NIS commands run also depends on whether a Solaris 2 or Solaris 9 NIS client is making requests of an NIS server or of an NIS+ server in NIS-compatibility mode. NIS clients cannot make updates to NIS+ servers that are running in NIS-compatibility mode. For example, such clients cannot run the chkey and newkey commands. Table 26–10 lists the NIS commands supported in the Solaris 2 and Solaris 9 operating environments.

Table 26–10 NIS Commands Supported in the Solaris 2 and Solaris 9 Operating Environments

Command Type 

NIS Commands Supported in the Solaris 2 and Solaris 9 Operating Environments 

NIS Commands Not Supported in the Solaris 2 and Solaris 9 Operating Environments 

Utilities 

ypinit ypxfr ypcat ypmatch yppasswd ypset ypwhich

yppush yppoll ypchsh ypchfn ypmake

Daemons 

ypbind

ypserv ypxfrd rpc.ypupdated rpc.yppasswdd

NIS API 

yp_get_default_domain() yp_bind() yp_unbind() yp_match() yp_first yp_next() yp_all() yp_master() yperr_string() ypprot_err()

yp_order() yp_update()

Client and Server Command Equivalents

The two tables in this section contain NIS commands and their approximate NIS+ equivalents. The commands have been divided into two categories: Table 26–11 contains name service client commands and Table 26–12 contains name service server commands.

Client Command Equivalents

Table 26–11 shows client-to-name server commands. These commands are typed on name service client machines and request information of name service servers. The commands in column 1 run on Solaris 1, Solaris 2 or Solaris 9 NIS clients connected to Solaris 1 NIS servers. The commands in column 2 run on Solaris 1, Solaris 2, or Solaris 9 NIS clients connected to Solaris 2 or Solaris 9 NIS+ servers running in NIS-compatibility mode. The commands in column 3 only run on Solaris 2 or Solaris 9 NIS+ clients connected to Solaris 2 or Solaris 9 NIS+ servers. Commands are approximately equivalent across rows. “N/A” indicates that an equivalent command does not exist for that case.

Table 26–11 NIS Client Commands and Equivalent NIS+ Commands

SunOS 4.x NIS Server 

NIS+ Server in NIS-Compatibility Mode 

NIS+ Server 

ypwhich -m

ypwhich -m

niscat -o org_dir

ypcat

ypcat

niscat

ypwhich

ypwhich

N/A  

ypmatch

ypmatch

nismatch/nisgrep

yppasswd

passwd

passwd

ypbind

ypbind

N/A  

yppoll

N/A  

N/A 

ypset

ypset

N/A 

N/A 

ypinit -c

nisclient -c

Note that:

Server Command Equivalents

Table 26–12 shows name server-to-name server commands. The NIS server commands are not included in the Solaris 2 or Solaris 9 releases, so they are not available to either NIS+ servers or NIS+ servers in NIS-compatibility mode. In addition, an NIS server cannot make updates to an NIS+ server, nor can an NIS+ server make updates to an NIS server. Column 3 lists the NIS+ server commands that are equivalent to the NIS server commands in column 1. Servers in NIS-compatibility mode have no exact equivalents because NIS-compatibility mode refers only to client commands.

Table 26–12 NIS Server Commands and Equivalent NIS+ Commands

SunOS 4.x NIS Server 

NIS+ Server in NIS-Compatibility Mode 

NIS+ Server 

ypxfr

N/A 

N/A 

makedbm

N/A 

nisaddent

ypinit -m ypinit -s

N/A 

nisserver

ypserv

rpc.nisd -Y

rpc.nisd

ypserv -d

rpc.nisd -Y -B

No DNS forwarding needed; use /etc/nsswitch.conf

ypxfrd

N/A 

N/A 

rpc.ypupdated

N/A 

N/A 

rpc.yppasswd

rpc.nispasswdd

rpc.nispasswdd

yppush

N/A 

nisping

ypmake

N/A 

nissetup, nisaddent

ypxfr

N/A 

N/A 

NIS and NIS+ API Function Equivalents

To completely convert your site to NIS+, you must both change the name service and port all applications to NIS+. Any internally created applications that make NIS calls have to be modified to use NIS+ calls. Otherwise, you always have to run your NIS+ servers in NIS-compatibility mode, with all the drawbacks that this mode entails. External applications may force you to run your namespace in NIS-compatibility mode until they are updated, as well.

Table 26–13 contains a list of the NIS API functions and their NIS+ API equivalents, if they exist.

Table 26–13 NIS API and NIS+ API Equivalent Functions

NIS API Functions 

NIS+ API Functions 

yp_get_default_domain()

nis_local_directory()

ypbind()

N/A 

ypunbind()

N/A 

ypmatch()

nis_list()

yp_first()

nis_first_entry()

yp_next()

nis_next_entry()

yp_all()

nis_list()

yp_master()

nis_lookup()

yperr_string()

nis_perror() nis_sperrno()

ypprot_err()

nis_perror() nis_sperrno()

yp_order()

N/A 

yp_update()

nis_add_entry(), nis_remove_entry(), nis_modify_entry()