The nismkdir command creates new NIS+ subdirectories within an existing domain. It can also be used to create replicated directories. Without options, this command will create a subdirectory with the same master and the replicas as its parent directory.

It is advisable to use nisserver(1M) to create an NIS+ domain which consists of the specified directory along with the org_dir and groups_dir subdirectories.

The two primary aspects that are controlled when making a directory are its access rights, and its degree of replication.

A host that serves a NIS+ directory must be a NIS+ client in a directory above the one it is serving. The exceptions to this rule are the root NIS+ servers, which are both clients and servers of the same NIS+ directory.

When the host's default domain is different from the default domain on the client where the command is executed, the hostname supplied as an argument to the -s or -m options must be fully qualified.

Special per-server and per-directory access restrictions may apply when this command updates the serving lists of the affected NIS+ servers. See nisopaccess(1).

The following options are supported:

-D defaults

Specify a different set of defaults to be used when creating new directories. The defaults string is a series of tokens separated by colons. These tokens represent the default values to be used for the generic object properties. All of the legal tokens are described below.

ttl=time

This token sets the default time to live for objects that are created by this command. The value time is specified in the format as defined by the nischttl (1) command. The default value is 12h (12 hours).

owner=ownername

This token specifies that the NIS+ principal ownername should own the created object. The default for this value is the principal who is executing the command.

group=groupname

This token specifies that the group groupname should be the group owner for the object that is created. The default value is NULL.

access=rights

This token specifies the set of access rights that are to be granted for the given object. The value rights is specified in the format as defined by the nischmod(1) command. The default value is ----rmcdr---r---.

-m hostname

If the directory named by dirname does not exist, then a new directory that is not replicated is created with host hostname as its master server.

If the directory name by dirname does exist, then the host named by hostname is made its master server.

-s hostname

Specify that the host hostname will be a replica for an existing directory named dirname.

The following operand is supported:

dirname

The fully qualified NIS+ name of the directory that has to be created.

NIS_DEFAULTS

This variable contains a defaults string that will override the NIS+ standard defaults. If the -D switch is used those values will then override both the NIS_DEFAULTS variable and the standard defaults.

NIS_PATH

If this variable is set, and the NIS+ directory name is not fully qualified, each directory specified will be searched until the directory is found (see nisdefaults(1)).

The following exit values are returned:

0

Successful operation.

1

Operation failed.

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

nis+(1), nischmod(1), nischttl(1), nisdefaults(1), nisls(1), nisopaccess(1), nisrmdir(1), nisserver(1M), attributes(5)

NIS+ might not be supported in future releases of the Solaris Operating Environment. Tools to aid the migration from NIS+ to LDAP are available in the Solaris 9 operating environment. For more information, visit http://www.sun.com/directory/nisplus/transition.html.