pw_mkdb() failed in rpc.yppasswdd

[Jin Guojun (DSD staff)]

When using yppasswd to change a user password, rcp.yppasswdd failed in two ways:

change passwd from root on NIS server:
------- server syslog messages ---------
passwd: in pam_sm_chauthtok(): yppasswd_local(): failed to connect to rpc.yppasswdd: 
nis.server.$DOMAIN: RPC: Program not registered

change passwd from a user on either NIS server or a remote machine:
------- server syslog messages ---------
 rpc.yppasswdd[349]: pw_mkdb() failed
 passwd: in pam_sm_chauthtok(): yppasswd_remote(): NIS password update failed

========= end of messages =========

This is on 5.1 release. What would be the problem?

pw_mkdb() in lib/libutil/pw_util.c shows that
this may be failed at execl(... , "pwd_mkdb" ...)

pw_mkdb(const char *user)
{
   switch (pid= fork()) {
    ...
    case 0 :
        execl(_PATH_PWD_MKDB, "pwd_mkdb", "-p",
                            "-d", passwd_dir, "-u", user, tempname, NULL);
        _exit(1);
    ...
    }

        if (waitpid(pid, &pstat, 0) == -1)
                return (-1);
        if (WIFEXITED(pstat) && WEXITSTATUS(pstat) == 0)
                return (0);
        errno = 0;
        return (-1);
}

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