Very Computer

Quote:> Suppose you are root on an NIS master server (with SunOS 5.5.1).  How
> do you change some other user's NIS password, if:

> 1.  No one knows the user's password (e.g. user forgot his/her password).
> 2.  The password file that NIS uses is not /etc/passwd .

> Editing the password file seems like it would work, except that it could
> create a mess if someone else were changing a password at the same time
> (vipw only works on /etc/passwd)

                                  .  What other ways are there that are safer?

Good question.  I haven't used Solaris 2 at a large site long enough
for it to be much of an issue.  When necessary, I've just done as you
and edited the file by hand (using Emacs, which when saving at least
gives warning if the file's been changed).  Several years ago at Sun,
I recall there being a `viyp' utility for editing NIS files.  Maybe
they made it publically available.  I think it's harder to enforce
such a utility's use than it is to write one. ;-)

On a related note -- what is the recommended/approved/best way to add
new users and remove ex-users to/from NIS+ ??  One would hope `useradd'
could do it -- nope.  The NIS+ utilities `nis{addent,populate}' are
tailored towards adding to NIS+ tables from ASCII files or NIS maps
rather than dealing with a single "user" entry.  And using plain
`nistbladm' and `nisaddcred' options is crude and error-prone.

I've searched to no avail for some "cookbook" method of handling NIS+
user management.  My old NIS+ book was useless for that issue.  Maybe
I just have a blind spot.  Any suggestions would be appreciated...
thanks!

-sjk

--
Scott J. Kramer                         Graham Technology Solutions
Sr. UNIX Systems Administrator          20823 Stevens Creek Blvd., Suite 300

http://www.graham.com                 +1.408.366.8001