This document contains Frequently Asked Questions, which are relevant to completing the week's lab assignment. Any Questions may be posted to cspp51081.
This information is stored on a different file server. Basically, there are
several file systems linked together by a network, run by a single host which stores a database of
configuration information (such as your login name, password, and default shell) and distributes this
to other machines in the system. This allows some consistency
across all machines in the network. To access information
on this system you need special commands. Many look like ordinarly unix commands
with a prefix yp. For example,
ypcat will print the data from a database to the screen
(like cat.)
The database we want is named passwd. Try
ypcat passwd | head -25
The command head displays the first few lines of data: the default is ten line,
but the option -25 displays 25 line. FYI the prefix
yp refers to Sun Yellow Pages which was the former name of
the service providing the network distribution: Network Information System (NIS).