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Date: Fri, 16 Aug 1996 14:02:11 -0400 (EDT)
From: Thomas David Rivers <ponds!rivers@dg-rtp.dg.com>
Message-Id: <199608161802.OAA04416@lakes.water.net>
To: imb@asstdc.com.au, ponds!ponds!rivers
Subject: Re: Problem in 2.1.5 install and loopback interface.
Cc: ponds!freebsd.org!hackers
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> 
> > After a 2.1.5 install, you'll find in sysconfig a line
> > to initialize the loopback interface:
>  
> >  ifconfig_lo0="inet localhost"
>  
> > Well - if your using a nameserver, and the machine booting happens
> > to *be* the nameserver, this won't work.  Since named isn't
> > up yet (how could it be before the interfaces are configured?),
> > you can't resolve the name "localhost"
> 
> <sigh> .. man 5 hosts ..
> 
> 


 Hmmm,  let me restate this then...

 That is, if you are a nameserver, and you are also a name client
(i.e. you have an /etc/resolv.conf) you should use the IP address
when configuring your interfaces, since you:

	1) Are a client so /etc/hosts isn't examined until after
             a _long_ time out.

	2) Are the server the client needs to contact and
	   named isn't running yet.

  I see that the man page says:

    When using the name server named(8),  this file provides a backup when
    the name server is not running.  For the name server, it is suggested
    that only a few addresses be included in this file.  These include  ad-
    dress for the local interfaces that ifconfig(8) needs at boot time and a
    few machines on the local network.

 It's not that it won't work, it's just that we have to wait for
a long time for the gethostbyname() request to time out before
proceeding... if we used 127.0.0.1 we can avoid that wait...

 It was just a little spooky when I was setting up the nameserver,
the machine would just sit there for awhile during boot-up
and then proceed.

	- Dave Rivers -