NFS

NFS is a way of making the filesystem(s) on one machine accessible to other machines. The beauty of NFS is that an NFS filesystem mounted across the network appears to the local user almost exactly like a local filesystem mounted from the local hard disk. (See the chapter on filesystems for more information on what it means to "mount" a filesystem.) Again, this is useful in real-world network situations where it would be impractical to maintain multiple copies of files accessed by users across a network.

Running NFS will open up some security holes on your network. Before setting up NFS, take a little time and read up on the security risks associated with network filesystems. You can't plug all the holes, but you can minimize your risks if you have a better idea of what you're getting yourself into.

Setting Up NFS

1. Invoke the mountd and nfsd daemons. (Later you will want to configure your system so this happens automatically at boot time.)

2. Edit the /etc/exports file on the exporting computer to include the directories you want exported and the domains/users you want them exported to.

3. Edit the /etc/fstab file on the mounting computer to include the network filesystem.

4. Mount the filesystem as usual with the mount command.

Globbing is the process of referring to multiple files with a single string. For example, the string "a*" would refer to all the files that started with the letter "a".

The commands covered in this section include the following:

`domainname`	Show or set the system's NIS/YP domain name.
`nisdomainname`	Show or set system's NIS/YP domain name.
`ypdomainname`	Show or set the system's NIS/YP domain name.
`makedbm`	Convert text file to ypserv database.
`ypbind`	Invoke NIS client daemon.
`ypcat`	Display keys from the NIS database.
`yppasswd`	Change user-related information.
`ypinit`	Initialize a yp server.
`yppoll`	Return version and master server of NIS maps.
`yppush`	Copy information from master server to slave servers.
`ypserv`	Invoke NIS network services daemon.
`ypset`	Get NIS information for a domain.
`ypwhich`	Return the name of the NIS server or map master.
`ypxfer`	Copy map databases between servers.