Disappearing YP password file

[Jeff Giacobbe]

Here's a little mystery for you all:

Configuration:

Sparstation 1+  running SunOS 4.1 and acting as an NIS (YP) master for 5
diskless SLC's.  We're using the automounter for users home directories.

The Problem:

The yp password file (passwd.yp, used to 'make' the yp maps) takes it upon
itself to completely DISAPPEAR!!! This has happened 3 times in about 2
months.  No other files in the /etc directory are affected, only the
passwd.yp file.  I've checked and rechecked the permissions of every file
in /etc, as well as the directory itself.  There are no 'suprise' cron
jobs that wipe out /etc/passwd.yp (to the best of my knowledge, anyway).

If it's an NIS problem or an automouter bug, then how come /etc/passwd.yp
is the only file that disappears?? /etc/auto.home and /etc/auto.master are
fine. 

Luckily I'm able to rebuild the passwd.yp file using ypcat (provided I
don`t try to re-make the maps first :-)  ) But this has become an area of
GREAT concern for me.

Has anyone heard of this type of behavior with an NIS passwd file??  We've
been running this same configuration for about 10 months and the problem
has only cropped up in the last two months.

I'm just paranoid that some other files might start "disappearing" in the
future.  What's going on?  Is David Copperfield hacking my system?
(Tonight on NBC, David Copperfield makes a 250meg disk partition disappear
--- right before you're eyes!!)

...Not my idea of entertainment....

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

p.s. I've asked Sun about this. So far they're stumped too.

|                      giacobbe at apollo.montclair.edu                      |