The YP/NIS functions allow developers to retrieve data from NIS.
Network Information Service (NIS) was developed by Sun in the late 1980s as part of their new Network File System (NFS). NIS allows system administrators to easily distribute homogeneous administrative/configuration files across multiple systems within a network. The PHP YP/NIS functions roughly correspond to functions of a similar name in the NIS C API.
The service was originally called Yellow Pages (YP) - despite the name change to Network Information Service, the YP abbreviation has stayed in popular use.
A full discussion of YP/NIS is far beyond the scope of this book. For more information:
To enable the YP/NIS functions in PHP, you will need to set the --enable-yp flag when running configure. (If configuring PHP 3, use the --with-yp flag instead.)
While YP/NIS offers system administrators greater convenience, it has relatively high security risks. Older implementations of the service would distribute files managed by NIS to outside hosts with relatively little coaxing; newer implementations of the service continue to have security issues.
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 "The Network Information Service (NIS) was formerly known as Sun Yellow Pages (YP). The functionality of the two remains the same; only the name has changed. The name Yellow Pages is a registered trademark in the United Kingdom of British Telecommunications plc, and may not be used without permission." - from the Solaris 2.6 Reference Manual AnswerBook Man Pages - man ypmake
PHP Functions Essential Reference. Copyright © 2002 by New Riders Publishing (Authors: Zak Greant, Graeme Merrall, Torben Wilson, Brett Michlitsch). This material may be distributed only subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the Open Publication License, v1.0 or later (the latest version is presently available at http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/). The authors of this book have elected not to choose any options under the OPL. This online book was obtained from http://www.fooassociates.com/phpfer/ and is designed to provide information about the PHP programming language, focusing on PHP version 4.0.4 for the most part. The information is provided on an as-is basis, and no warranty or fitness is implied. All persons and entities shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage arising from the information contained in this book.