Berkeley CSUA MOTD:Entry 19937
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2025/05/24 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
5/24    

2000/11/28-12/4 [Computer/SW/Security, Computer/SW/Unix] UID:19937 Activity:kinda low
11/28   NIS question.  My nsswitch.conf has the line
          passwd: files nis nisplus
        To me this says that the user should be looked for in the passwd file
        first, then checked for in NIS, then NIS+... Yet when the NIS server
        isn't available, I have to wait for a huge timeout before I'm finally
        logged in (yes, there is an entry in the passwd file).  Why does this
        happen and how do I get the expected behavior? -mogul
        \_ It's probably doing something other than a passwd lookup.
           You'll have to truss the process to find out what.  -tom
           \_ Or you can check for other nis lines in the nsswitch.conf
              automount, group, hosts may all be blocking on nis lookup.
              It may be something in your .login/.profile/.[t]cshrc file
              causing an nis lookup as well (like having someone else's
              homedir referenced in your path). --scotsman
              \_ If it's stalling in .cshrc, I think there is some option
                 you can set in .cshrc to show you where. Put a line with
                 'set verbose' or something at the top of .cshrc
                 And if you have root, then login as root and see if
                 the problem still exists. Since root has simpler dotfiles
                 and should have no remotely mounted home dir, you can
                 use it to narrow down the possible problem.
                 You might also modify nsswitch.conf
                 \_ Yes, but only if I log into another client served by NIS.
                    My home directory gets mounted from my main machine.  On
                    my machine, the passwd home directory entry is set to the
                    local directory so it doesn't go through autofs... -mogul
                 to remove nis and nisplus and see what happens.
                 Make sure you have another xterm open however
                 just in case modifying nsswitch.conf locks you out.
                 Also try getent passwd YOURUSERNAME and see if it says
                 what you think it should be (i.e. is your home dir
                 really on your local desktop disk?)
                 Also check /var/*/messages file for errors
        \_ what's in the groups line?  is your default group in a file
           or in nis?  initgroups usually takes forever
           \_ groups line was fine, but my group was missing from local
              /etc/group.  Still didn't solve the problem though.  I will try
              tom's suggestion when I return to work.  -mogul
              \_ These things are often due to DNS problems.
              \_ is your home directory auto-mounted? could be the auto
                 mounter maps are stored on the nis server.
        \_ Try:  passwd: files nis [NOTFOUND=return] nisplus    -- ivy
2025/05/24 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
5/24    

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2012/2/9-3/26 [Computer/SW/Security, Computer/SW/Unix] UID:54305 Activity:nil
2/9     Reminder: support for mail services has been deprecated for *several
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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2011/6/5-8/27 [Computer/HW/Memory] UID:54127 Activity:nil
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2011/5/19-7/30 [Computer/SW/Security] UID:54110 Activity:nil
5/19    Uh, is anyone still using this? Please mark here if you post and
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        \_ person k
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2010/12/13-2011/2/19 [Computer/SW/Unix] UID:53978 Activity:nil
12/21   Help, all my files are owned by nobody! -ausman
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