This is a snapshot release of the NIS interface to Perl 5. There are three parts to the interface: the raw component (Net::NIS), the objectoriented component (Net::NIS::Table), and the tied interface (Net::NIS).

Unless someone provides strong reason to support the raw or OO components, they will be marked as deprecated and not documented or enhanced (but still supported for backward compatibility).

The tied interface provides simple, Perl-like access to NIS databases:

use Net::NIS;
tie %ip, 'Net::NIS', 'hosts.byname'
or die "Cannot tie to hosts.byname YP map: $yperr\n"; $hostname = "test";
print "$hostname's IP address is ", $ip{$hostname} || "<unknown>", "\n";

# Look for any hosts named "test-XXX" @test_hosts = sort grep(/^test-/, keys %ip);

INSTALLATION

The usual:

      perl Makefile.PL
      make
      make test
      make install

You may see some (different) compiler warnings on Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris. Suggestions welcome on portable ways to clean those up.

DEPENDENCIES

Net::NIS is being developed under Perl 5.6.1. It has been tested with 5.005_03, and seems to work. Sorry, Net::NIS will not compile under Perl 5.004 or anything earlier.

The tests require that the "ypcat" and "domainname" executables be found somewhere in your $PATH, and that the compile system be bound to a YP server containing some of the "usual suspects" maps. If you build on a system not running NIS, the tests will fail.

BUGS

Net::NIS has not changed much (read "at all") in over seven years, so I (Ed) am not about to go changing interfaces. I have made some bug fixes:

trailing-NUL bugs fixed: calling code no longer needs to trim NULs from returned keys, or append them in lookups.
YPERR_xxx constants are now properly defined

...and added some new features:

when called in scalar context, yp_match() returns
New magic variable "$yperr" for determining error status
New tied interface

There have been a lot of changes, and that means there will be bugs. Please report any bugs you encounter to <esm@pobox.com>.

have fun,
rik. (1995-11-10)
Ed (2002-02-20)

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE:

This package is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.