docs/87936: Chapter on NIS/YP lacks good information on adding new users

[Fernan Aguero]

>Number:         87936
>Category:       docs
>Synopsis:       Chapter on NIS/YP lacks good information on adding new users
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       low
>Responsible:    freebsd-doc
>State:          open
>Quarter:        
>Keywords:       
>Date-Required:
>Class:          change-request
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Mon Oct 24 18:00:27 GMT 2005
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     Fernan Aguero
>Release:        FreeBSD 4.10-RELEASE i386
>Organization:
IIB-UNSAM
>Environment:

FreeBSD pi.iib.unsam.edu.ar 4.10-RELEASE FreeBSD 4.10-RELEASE #0: Wed May 26 12:56:43 ART 2004 fernan at pi.iib.unsam.edu.ar:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/PI  i386

	
>Description:
	

	Section 4 of Chapter 24 of the FreeBSD Handbook describes the
	NIS/YP system and guides users on setting up NIS master servers,
	slave servers and clients.
	http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/network-nis.html

	However, upon trying to follow the instructions on the handbook,
	it is apparent that some information regarding the addition of
	new users is lacking. 

	After having set up NIS (at least a master server and a client),
	there is a section on 'Important things to remember' that
	address the issue of adding new users. I've found this
	information confusing. 

	It correctly tells you that you should only add new users to the
	master NIS server. But it does not tell you WHERE you should add
	the new users. Should you use vipw and edit /etc/master.passwd?
	Or should you edit /var/yp/master.passwd? The answer is obvious
	for any experienced NIS user, but it's not for someone who has
	not used NIS before.

	Also, the example that follows seems to be misleading (pw useradd
	jsmith ...) If you run it without modification the new user
	would not be allowed to log in into NIS clients (i.e. it will
	not be propagated). This is because the new user will be added
	to /etc/master.passwd, while /var/yp/master.passwd will remain
	unchanged. This works only if you want to add new 'local' users.
	The chapter lacks information regarding how to create new
	'network' users (those that will be allowed to log in into other
	NIS clients).
	
	See these threads for the kind of confusion that arises:
	http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=919628+0+archive/2002/freebsd-questions/20021124.freebsd-questions
	http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=71924+0+archive/1999/freebsd-isp/19990711.freebsd-isp
	
	Perhaps a note could be added clarifying this and mentioning the
	possible use of 'pw -V /var/yp' when adding new users?
	
>How-To-Repeat:
	
	
>Fix:

	


>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
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