2.2. Some General Information

The next four lines are quoted from the Sun(tm) System & Network Administration Manual:

    "NIS was formerly known as Sun Yellow Pages (YP) but
     the name Yellow Pages(tm) is a registered trademark
     in the United Kingdom of British Telecom plc and may
     not be used without permission."

NIS stands for Network Information Service. Its purpose is to provide information, that has to be known throughout the network, to all machines on the network. Information likely to be distributed by NIS is:

• login names/passwords/home directories (/etc/passwd)

• group information (/etc/group)

If, for example, your password entry is recorded in the NIS passwd database, you will be able to login on all machines on the network which have the NIS client programs running.

Sun is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. licensed to SunSoft, Inc.