# pw user mod for nis master.passwd



## dipdill (Jul 7, 2017)

I'm having an issue with my NIS system.  I am trying to use pw to change a password of a user on my NIS.  I have all the NIS users in a `/var/yp/master.passwd` file.

When I use the command:

`echo 'password' | pw mod user TestUser -Y -y /var/yp/master.passwd -h 0`

I get an error:

`pw: no such user `TestUser'`

Do I need another switch to specify this is a NIS file?  I think it is still looking for TestUser in the `/etc/master.passwd` file... and it doesn't exist there.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks


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## SirDice (Jul 7, 2017)

Never used it myself but if I read the -Y option correctly it's already in /var/yp/. So I would guess you need to supply the path relative from /var/yp/: `pw mod user TestUser -Y -y master.passwd -h 0`


```
-Y            Using this option with any of the update modes causes pw to
                   run make(1) after changing to the directory /var/yp.  This
                   is intended to allow automatic updating of NIS database
                   files.  If separate passwd and group files are being used
                   by NIS, then use the -y path option to specify the location
                   of the NIS passwd database so that pw will concurrently
                   update it with the system password databases.
```


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## dipdill (Jul 7, 2017)

Just tried:

`pw mod user TestUser -Y -y master.passwd -h 0`

`pw mod user TestUser -Y -y ./master.passwd -h 0`

`pw mod user TestUser -Y -y /var/yp/master.passwd -h 0`

`pw mod user TestUser -Y -y /var/yp/ -h 0`

And all return the same end result... `pw: no such user `TestUser'`


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## SirDice (Jul 7, 2017)

Not sure if you're doing this on the NIS server itself. As far as I understood it you can't run this 'remotely', it has to be done 'locally', i.e. on the NIS server itself.


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## dipdill (Jul 7, 2017)

Yes I am running it directly on the NIS server.


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