NIS doesn't start after upgrade to Devuan Beowulf

Question

After upgrading a server to Devuan Beowulf the NIS¹ services fail to start:

root@foo:~ # /etc/init.d/nis start
[FAIL] Starting NIS services: ypserv yppasswdd ypxfrd ypbind[....] binding to YP server...........................................failed (backgrounded).
. ok 

The problem apparently occurs because ypbind is not started:

root@foo:~ # ypwhich
ypwhich: Can't communicate with ypbind

I confirmed via ps ax | grep ypbind that there really is no ypbind process.

However, if I run ypbind in the foreground, it starts just fine:

root@foo:~ # ypbind -d
3662: parsing config file
3662: Trying entry: ypserver foo.example.org
3662: parsed ypserver foo.example.org
3662: add_server() domain: example.org, host: foo.example.org, slot: 0
3662: [Welcome to ypbind-mt, version 1.38]

3662: ping interval is 20 seconds

3662: rebind interval is 900 seconds

3664: ping host 'foo.example.org', domain 'example.org'
3664: Answer for domain 'example.org' from server 'foo.example.org'

and ypwhich gets a proper response:

root@foo:~ # ypwhich
foo.example.org

What is going on here, and how do I fix it?

---

¹ Yeah, yeah, I know, the 90s called and want their directory service back. Shut up.

Answer 1

This appears to be a bug in the current Debian package. The ypbind binary in that package doesn't recognize the parameter -no-dbus anymore (even though it's still listed in the man page):

root@foo:~ # ypbind -no-dbus
Usage:
	ypbind [-broadcast | -ypset | -ypsetme] [-f configfile]
	  [-no-ping] [-broken-server] [-local-only] [-i ping-interval]
	  [-r rebind-interval] [-debug] [-verbose] [-n | -foreground]
	ypbind -c [-f configfile]
	ypbind --version

but the package does not replace the existing /etc/default/nis with an updated config (which the package actually contains, see /usr/share/nis/nis.default).

To fix the issue open /etc/default/nis in an editor and replace

...
# Additional options to be given to ypbind when it is started.  
YPBINDARGS=-no-dbus
...

with

...
# Additional options to be given to ypbind when it is started.  
YPBINDARGS=
...

Save the file and restart the service (service nis restart).