NAME
ypbind
—
NIS domain binding daemon
SYNOPSIS
ypbind |
[-ypset ] [-ypsetme ]
[-s ] [-m ]
[-S
domainname,server1,server2,...] |
DESCRIPTION
Theypbind
utility is the process that maintains NIS
binding information. At startup, it searches for an NIS server responsible for
serving the system's default domain (as set by the
domainname(1) command) using network broadcasts. Once it
receives a reply, it will store the address of the server and other
information in a special file located in
/var/yp/binding. The NIS routines in the standard C
library can then use this file when processing NIS requests. There may be
several such files since it is possible for an NIS client to be bound to more
than one domain.
After a binding has been established,
ypbind
will send DOMAIN_NONACK requests to the NIS
server at one minute intervals. If it fails to receive a reply to one of
these requests, ypbind
assumes that the server is no
longer running and resumes its network broadcasts until another binding is
established. The ypbind
utility will also log
warning messages using the
syslog(3) facility each time it detects that a server has stopped
responding, as well as when it has bound to a new server.
The following options are available:
-ypset
- It is possible to force
ypbind
to bind to a particular NIS server host for a given domain by using the ypset(8) command. However,ypbind
refuses YPBINDPROC_SETDOM requests by default since it has no way of knowing exactly who is sending them. Using the-ypset
flag causesypbind
to accept YPBINDPROC_SETDOM requests from any host. This option should only be used for diagnostic purposes and only for limited periods since allowing arbitrary users to reset the binding of an NIS client poses a severe security risk. -ypsetme
- This is similar to the
-ypset
flag, except that it only permits YPBINDPROC_SETDOM requests to be processed if they originated from the local host. -s
- Cause
ypbind
to run in secure mode: it will refuse to bind to any NIS server that is not running as root (i.e., that is not using privileged TCP ports). -S
domainname,server1,server2,server3,...- Allow the system administrator to lock
ypbind
to a particular domain and group of NIS servers. Up to ten servers can be specified. There must not be any spaces between the commas in the domain/server specification. This option is used to insure that the system binds only to one domain and only to one of the specified servers, which is useful for systems that are both NIS servers and NIS clients: it provides a way to restrict what machines the system can bind to without the need for specifying the-ypset
or-ypsetme
options, which are often considered to be security holes. The specified servers must have valid entries in the local /etc/hosts file. IP addresses may be specified in place of hostnames. Ifypbind
cannot make sense out of the arguments, it will ignore the-S
flag and continue running normally.Note that
ypbind
will consider the domainname specified with the-S
flag to be the system default domain. -m
- Cause
ypbind
to use a 'many-cast' rather than a broadcast for choosing a server from the restricted mode server list. In many-cast mode,ypbind
will transmit directly to the YPPROC_DOMAIN_NONACK procedure of the servers specified in the restricted list and bind to the server that responds the fastest. This mode of operation is useful for NIS clients on remote subnets where no local NIS servers are available. The-m
flag can only be used in conjunction with the-S
flag above (if used without the-S
flag, it has no effect).
NOTES
The ypbind
utility will not make
continuous attempts to keep secondary domains bound. If a server for a
secondary domain fails to respond to a ping, ypbind
will broadcast for a new server only once before giving up. If a client
program attempts to reference the unbound domain,
ypbind
will try broadcasting again. By contrast,
ypbind
will automatically maintain a binding for the
default domain whether client programs reference it ot not.
FILES
- /var/yp/binding/[domainname].[version]
- the files used to hold binding information for each NIS domain
- /etc/rc.conf
- system configuration file where the system default domain and ypbind startup options are specified
SEE ALSO
AUTHORS
Theo de Raadt <deraadt@fsa.ca>