The Network Information Service (NIS) is a system that provides network information (login names, passwords, home directories, group information) to all of the machines on a network. NIS can allow users to log in on any machine on the network, as long as the machine has the NIS client programs running and the user's password is recorded in the NIS passwd database. NIS was formerly known as Sun Yellow Pages (YP).

This package provides the NIS server, which will need to be running on your network. NIS clients do not need to be running the server.

Install ypserv if you need an NIS server for your network. You also need to install the yp-tools and ypbind packages on any NIS client machines.