---
name: "ypinit"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "ypserv"
version: "4.2-2+b2"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux", "freebsd", "openbsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/ypinit"
---

# ypinit(8)

NIS database install and build program

## NAME

ypinit - NIS database install and build program

## SYNOPSIS

**/usr/lib/yp/ypinit** \[-m\] \[-s *master\_name*\]

## DESCRIPTION

**ypinit** builds the domain subdirectory of /var/yp for the current default domain. After building the domain subdirectory, **ypinit** builds a complete set of administrative maps for your system and places them in this directory. The first map created by **ypinit -m** is the ypservers map. You should run it as root on the hosts, which should be the master ypserver.You should have only one master server per NIS domain.

All databases are built from scratch, either from information available to the program at runtime, or from the ASCII data base files in /etc. These files are listed below under FILES.

An NIS database on a slave server is set up by copying an existing database from a running server. The **master\_name** argument should be the hostname of an NIS server (either the master server for all the maps, or a server on which the data base is up-to-date and stable).

## OPTIONS

- **-m**

  If the local host is the NIS master.

- **-s**

  Set up a slave server with the database from *master\_name*

## FILES

/etc/passwd, /etc/group, /etc/hosts, /etc/networks, /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/netgroup, /etc/rpc

## SEE ALSO

[**makedbm**(8)](/makedbm/8.md), [**revnetgroup**(8)](/revnetgroup/8.md), [**yppush**(8)](/yppush/8.md), [**ypserv**(8)](/ypserv/8.md), [**ypxfr**(8)](/ypxfr/8.md)

## BUGS

There is no good error handling at the moment.

## AUTHOR

Thorsten Kukuk \<kukuk@linux-nis.org\>