The Linux NIS(YP)/NYS/NIS+ HOWTO
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# 10. Verifying the NIS/NYS Installation

If everything is fine (as it should be), you should be able to verify your installation with a few simple commands. Assuming, for example, your passwd file is being supplied by NIS, the command

        % ypcat passwd

should give you the contents of your NIS passwd file. The command

        % ypmatch userid passwd

(where userid is the login name of an arbitrary user) should give you the user's entry in the NIS passwd file. The "ypcat" and "ypmatch" programs should be included with your distribution of traditional NIS or NYS.

If a user cannot log in, run the following program on the client:

    #include <stdio.h>
    #include <pwd.h>
    #include <sys/types.h>

    int
    main(int argc, char *argv[])
    {
      struct passwd *pwd;

      if(argc != 2)
        {
          fprintf(stderr,"Usage: getwpnam username\n");
          exit(1);
        }

      pwd=getpwnam(argv[1]);

      if(pwd != NULL)
        {
          printf("name.....: [%s]\n",pwd->pw_name);
          printf("password.: [%s]\n",pwd->pw_passwd);
          printf("user id..: [%d]\n", pwd->pw_uid);
          printf("group id.: [%d]\n",pwd->pw_gid);
          printf("gecos....: [%s]\n",pwd->pw_gecos);
          printf("directory: [%s]\n",pwd->pw_dir);
          printf("shell....: [%s]\n",pwd->pw_shell);
        }
      else
        fprintf(stderr,"User \"%s\" not found!\n",argv[1]);

      exit(0);
    }

Running this program with the username as parameter will print all the information the getpwnam function gives back for this user. This should show you which entry is incorrect. The most common problem is, that the password field is overwritten with a "*".

GNU C Library 2.1 (glibc 2.1) comes with a tool called getent. Use this program instead the above on such a system. You could try:

       getent passwd

or

       getent passwd login

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