X-Spam-Check-By: sourceware.org Message-ID: Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2005 00:56:10 -0500 From: Jason Alonso Reply-To: jalonso AT media DOT mit DOT edu To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Subject: Re: NIS anyone? In-Reply-To: <43AB64FD.20005@DeFaria.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline References: <43AB64FD DOT 20005 AT DeFaria DOT com> Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com Mail-Followup-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Delivered-To: mailing list cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by delorie.com id jBN5uGgp027488 I've used svn (subversion) to administer Cygwin installations on many machines (particularly ones I do not have physical access to...) to an effect that may be an acceptable compromise to you. For my machines, each Cygwin installation is a working copy checkout owned by SYSTEM, and I have an hourly SYSTEM cron job that runs "svn update /" and a few installation-specific maintenance scripts. This allows me to maintain system configurations (including /etc/passwd) through "svn merge" operations performed from an administrative working copy (many, many cool subversion tricks can be used here). To maintain sanity, I store only configuration data and site-specific binaries in the repository--I use the term "overlay" to describe the set of files a repository stores for a given installation. In my organization, I give each machine a different branch of the repository (this allows me to tweak them individually), but it would be trivial to make a group of identical machines share the same branch. I've even set up an internal Cygwin mirror that presents this system as a Cygwin package, called "submerge." To install on a new workstation, I install the package (which includes all of the other Cygwin packages that I may need), and run "submerge stations/station-name" as an administrator, which (insert black magic here) downloads the relevant overlay, applies the overlay to /, and then invokes overlay-specific post-installation scripts. I can give more pointers on this system if anyone is interested. Cheers, Jason On 12/22/05, Andrew DeFaria wrote: > I have not been able to find a Cygwin/NIS package. Does it exist? > > In discussing distribution of Cygwin throughout the organization with a > colleague we got to talking about how to best configure Cygwin for > people who use laptops or otherwise do remote computing. We'd like to > have an environment where user accounts are known on the various Windows > boxes so that people can telnet/rsh/ssh into other peoples boxes however > in order to do that one needs a proper login. The situation with > mkpasswd command updating /etc/passwd, for example, is not very feasible > in large domains with frequent additions and deletions and huge > /etc/passwd files. I got to thinking that didn't we already address such > issues of trying to replicate large and changing config files with NIS?!? > > Now NIS is normally associated with just Unix domains and Cygwin runs on > Windows but many shops are mixed shops with Windows, Unix and Linux on > the same network. > > In thinking about NIS I think it would be ideal if the user could > compose a passwd file of say: > > $ mkpasswd -l > /etc/passwd > $ echo "+" >> /etc/passwd > > IOW "Make an /etc/passwd (and other files: /etc/group, etc.) then tell > the system to go to NIS for all of the domain user accounts". > Additionally what if there were an ActiveDirectory module such that you > could configure nsswitch.conf to say, essentially, go to ActiveDirectory > first, failing that the Unix NIS server and failing that use the local > files. This would be ideal, especially for people with laptops or who > use VPN, etc. > > Is there any plans on implementing NIS under Cygwin (even lacking an > ActiveDirectory component)? > -- > Do I BELIEVE in the Bible? Hell, I've actually SEEN one! > > > -- > Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple > Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html > Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html > FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/ > > -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/