PSARC/2007/677 Allow ypinit -c to use IP addresses

[Paul Wernau]

Darren Reed wrote:
> Peter Memishian wrote:
>> ...
>>   Using IP addresses directly is useful in a highly automated 
>> environment,
>>   such as punchin, inetmenu, etc, where the entries are transient and
>>   subject to change and modifying the hosts file directly is error-prone
>>   and as a shared file is subject to user modifications.
>>   
> 
> Given the target use of the change proposed by this case,
> has thought been given to allowing ypinit to be invoked in
> a manner that doesn't require any prompting?
> 
> For example:
> 
> ypinit -C 192.12.18.1
> 
> ...to initialise a client with 192.12.18.1 as its NIS server and
> having ypinit behave in a manner more suited to being invoked
> by something else rather than from the command line.

Do others find this useful?  One could simply write to the file 
directly.  It's listed in the ypinit man page under FILES, so I assume 
this is fair game.  ypinit would offer some sort of sanity check, but 
then we get into the CLI parsing game when trying to add more than one 
address, etc.  If the ypservers file is considered an out in the open 
interface, I say this is out of scope.  If not (which is not realistic, 
IMO), then I'd consider it.

I've heard others want to add -B for broadcast mode, etc.  There are a 
lot of potential RFEs here and the ypinit shell script really needs a 
good re-write, but I don't necessarily want this small enhancement to 
spiral on as the testing and risk increase dramatically for a feature 
that is hopefully starting its slow, painful death.

-Paul