The nispopulate shell script can be used to populate NIS+ tables in a specified domain from their corresponding files or NIS maps. nispopulate assumes that the tables have been created either through nisserver(1M) or nissetup(1M).

The table argument accepts standard names that are used in the administration of Solaris systems and non-standard key-value type tables. See nisaddent(1M) for more information on key-value type tables. If the table argument is not specified, nispopulate will automatically populate each of the standard tables. These standard (default) tables are: auto_master, auto_home, ethers, group, hosts, ipnodes, networks, passwd, protocols, services, rpc, netmasks, bootparams, netgroup, aliases and shadow. Note that the shadow table is only used when populating from files. The non-standard tables that nispopulate accepts are those of key-value type. These tables must first be created manually with the nistbladm(1) command.

Use the first synopsis (-Y) to populate NIS+ tables from NIS maps. nispopulate uses ypxfr(1M) to transfer the NIS maps from the NIS servers to the /var/yp/<NIS_domain> directory on the local machine. Then, it uses these files as the input source. Note that <NIS_domain> is case sensitive. Make sure there is enough disk space for that directory.

Use the second synopsis (-F) to populate NIS+ tables from local files. nispopulate will use those files that match the table name as input sources in the current working directory or in the specified directory.

Note that when populating the hosts, ipnodes, and passwd tables, nispopulate will automatically create the NIS+ credentials for all users and hosts (ipnodes) that are defined in the hosts, ipnodes, and passwd tables, respectively. A network passwd is required to create these credentials. This network password is used to encrypt the secret key for the new users and hosts. This password can be specified using the -l option or it will use the default password, "nisplus". nispopulate will not overwrite any existing credential entries in the credential table. Use nisclient(1M) to overwrite the entries in the cred table. It creates both LOCAL and DES credentials for users, and only DES credentials for hosts. To disable automatic credential creation, specify the "-S 0" option.

The third synopsis (-C) is used to populate NIS+ credential table with level 2 authentication (DES) from the hosts, ipnodes and passwd tables of the specified domain. The valid table arguments for this operation are hosts, ipnodes and passwd. If this argument is not specified then it will use hosts, ipnodes and passwd as the input source. If other authentication mechanisms are configured using nisauthconf(1M), the NIS+ credential table will be loaded with credentials for those mechanisms.

If nispopulate was earlier used with "-S 0" option, then no credentials were added for the hosts or the users. If later the site decides to add credentials for all users and hosts, then this (-C) option can be used to add credentials.

-a <NIS_server_addr>

Specifies the IP address for the NIS server. This option is only used with the -Y option.

-C

Populate the NIS+ credential table from hosts, ipnodes, and passwd tables using DES authentication (security level 2). If other authentication mechanisms are configured using nisauthconf(1M), the NIS+ credential table will be populated with credentials for those mechanisms.

-d <NIS+_domain.>

Specifies the NIS+ domain. The default is the local domain.

-F

Populates NIS+ tables from files.

-f

Forces the script to populate the NIS+ tables without prompting for confirmation.

-h <NIS_server_host>

Specifies the NIS server hostname from where the NIS maps are copied from. This is only used with the -Y option. This hostname must be present in the NIS+ hosts or ipnodes table, or in the /etc/hosts or /etc/inet/ipnodes file. If the hostname is not defined, the script will prompt you for its IP address, or you can use the -a option to specify the address manually.

-l <network_passwd>

Specifies the network password for populating the NIS+ credential table. This is only used when you are populating the hosts, ipnodes, and passwd tables. The default passwd is "nisplus".

-n

Does not overwrite local NIS maps in /var/yp/<NISdomain> directory if they already exist. The default is to overwrite the existing NIS maps in the local /var/yp/<NISdomain> directory. This is only used with the -Y option.

-p <directory_path>

Specifies the directory where the files are stored. This is only used with the -F option. The default is the current working directory.

-S 0|2

Specifies the authentication level for the NIS+ clients. Level 0 is for unauthenticated clients and no credentials will be created for users and hosts in the specified domain. Level 2 is for authenticated (DES) clients and DES credentials will be created for users and hosts in the specified domain. The default is to set up with level 2 authentication (DES). There is no need to run nispopulate with -C for level 0 authentication. Also, if other authentication mechanisms are configured with nisauthconf(1M), credentials for those mechanisms will also be populated for the NIS+ clients.

-u

Updates the NIS+ tables (ie., adds, deletes, modifies) from either files or NIS maps. This option should be used to bring an NIS+ table up to date when there are only a small number of changes. The default is to add to the NIS+ tables without deleting any existing entries. Also, see the -n option for updating NIS+ tables from existing maps in the /var/yp directory.

-v

Runs the script in verbose mode.

-x

Turns the "echo" mode on. The script just prints the commands that it would have executed. Note that the commands are not actually executed. The default is off.

-Y

Populate the NIS+ tables from NIS maps.

-y <NIS_domain>

Specifies the NIS domain to copy the NIS maps from. This is only used with the -Y option. The default domainname is the same as the local domainname.

nispopulate normally creates temporary files in the directory /tmp. You may specify another directory by setting the environment variable TMPDIR to your chosen directory. If TMPDIR is not a valid directory, then nispopulate will use /tmp).

/etc/inet/hosts

local host name database

/etc/inet/ipnodes

local database associating names of nodes with IP addresses

/var/yp

NIS (YP) domain directory

/var/nis

NIS+ domain directory

/tmp

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

nis+(1), nistbladm(1), nisaddcred(1M), nisaddent(1M), nisauthconf(1M), nisclient( 1M), nisserver(1M), nissetup(1M), rpc.nisd(1M), ypxfr(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.