		Welcome to NIS+ tool version 0.1alpha

The NIS+ tool is distributed under the GNU General Public License in the
hope it will help NIS+ administrators. Before you use it, make sure
that you understand the basic concepts of NIS+. 

NIS+ tool is not a replacement for Adminsuite. The purpous of NIS+ tool
is to help setting up domains, administer the rights of tables and entries
and change user passwords. 

This is a 0.1alpha release so expect bugs and flaws. To run it
you will need perl 5.003 and PERL/TK 400.201 or higher.
You may download the two programs from any CPAN site,
e.g. ftp://ftp.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/ftp/pub/CPAN.

If you find bugs or if you have suggestions for improvement or
if you just like the tool, please drop me a note:
		Ralf.Lehmann@darwin.muc.de


What can you do with nistool:

	- Create the root domain (mind the bug) and subdomains.

	- Create your own tables and directories.

	- Dump or load domains and any tables to/from files.

	- Add entries to any table with a generic interface.

	- Add credentails for hosts and users.

	- Add and remove replicas from directories.


Installation:

	Unpack the tarfile in any directory. 
	If you would like to have nistool in your path you have to
	copy or link the module Nisplus.pm into the directory where 
	your PERL modules are stored.

	E.G.: 	cd /opt/local/lib/perl5
		ln -s <where you unpack nistool>/Nisplus.pm Nisplus.pm

Starting:

	If you didn't add the module Nisplus.pm to your PERL modules
	go into the directory where you unpacked nistool and execute
	it from there. E.g. ./nistool.pl

	Otherwise execute: nistool.pl
	or: perl -I<where you unpacked nistool> nistool.pl


Bugs:

	If you find bugs or flaws please send them to me: 
		Ralf.Lehmann@darwin.muc.de	

Warning: If you are asked to type a password it will be visibel on the 
	screen. I haven't found the way to mask a password in PERL/TK yet.
	Passwords are handed to subcommands unencrypted. An intruder might
	spy them simply by calling the ps command. Unless there is no 
	direct PERL interface to the command nisaddcred I don't see a 
	solution to this.
	

Known Bugs:

1. 	Setting up the root domain will hang the tool. The root domain is
	set up correct.

	The tool calls the PERL script new_domain.pl to setup the NIS+ domains
	and receives the output via pipes. The STDERR Pipe output is scanned for 
	errors. The errors are reported via the tool to the user. If you call
	new_domain.pl to create the root domain the STDERR is not closed, with
	the effect that the tool waits for the STDERR pipe to receive messages
	but there won't be any more. The tool hangs in the routine 
		find_errors();
	It might be an error in PERL or the Solaris Pipe mechanism. All other
	calls to scripts work fine. My guess is that the IO Library is not
	async safe.

	Workaround: Kill the tool and start it again. All other calls to new_domain.pl
	work fine.

2.	Changing the owner, group or rigths of a table entry without permissions
	does not show an error message.

	Changing the entry without permissions does show an error message. Other
	functions, like changing a directory, are using the same mechanism and 
	are working fine. The reason for the bug might be the same like 1.

	Workaround: Open the entry again and see if your changes were made.

3.	Adding credentails for a user does not redirect STDOUT.
	
	If you add credentials for a user you will see the lines:
Adding key pair for unix.username@sun.com (username.sun.com.).
org_dir.sun.com. : no replicas
	This is because the STDOUT of the command new_cerd.pl is not
	redirected. New_cred.pl is used for adding credentials for a
	host too. There it works fine. The reason might be the same like 1.

	Workaround: Ignore those messages.
