[techtalk] pain in my NIS

[Almut Behrens]

On Wed, Jun 13, 2001 at 05:51:32PM -0700, Brian Sweeney wrote:
> NIS is, occasionally, the bane of my existence.

... of mine, too ;)

> The latest is the following
> error whenever I run make in the /var/yp directory (this log is what shows
> up on the slave server; the master just says the slave is timing out):
> 
> ypserv[31065]: ^I<domainname>/netid.byname already open.
> ypserv[31065]: ypproc_xfr: refuse to transfer netid.byname from <master>,
> map doesn't exist

(don't want to pretend to know much about NIS, so take this with a
grain of salt...)

I would interpret the message to mean that the ypserv deamon is
complaining about the database file handle already being open...

Maybe the following note from the (ypserv-1.3.11-)README file relates
to your problem:

    "This version caches the file handles. If you build a new map with
    makedbm, add the -c flag or call makedbm -c after updating a map."

So, have you tried running "makedbm -c" on the slave server to invalidate
ypserv's internal file cache?

Good luck,

- Almut