Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2001 21:18:47 -0700 From: Peter Wemm <peter@wemm.org> To: Doug Barton <DougB@FreeBSD.org> Cc: Dag-Erling Smorgrav <des@ofug.org>, arch@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Generating host.conf for backward compatibility Message-ID: <20011014041847.33E0C3810@overcee.netplex.com.au> In-Reply-To: <20011013153357.R40455-100000@master.gorean.org>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Doug Barton wrote:
> On Sat, 13 Oct 2001, Peter Wemm wrote:
>
> > Dag-Erling Smorgrav wrote:
> > > --=-=-=
> > >
> > > In our eagerness to switch from host.conf to nsswitch.conf, we forgot
> > > that old binaries and libraries (COMPAT_* and tons of third-party
> > > software for which sources might not even be available) still expect
> > > to find /etc/host.conf, and may not work (correctly) if it doesn't
> > > exist.
> >
> > I'm a bit puzzled as to why this makes a difference. The old libc resolver
> > defaulted to "dns","files" if host.conf was missing. The file is and
> > always was optional.
> >
> > Of course, that doesn't help you if you use a NIS hosts map, or if you're
> > expecting /etc/hosts to override DNS lookups.
>
> I know that when I was running -current before the recent stdio
> changes made COMPAT4X mandatory, I used 4.x binaries without difficulty.
> The two most notable examples are cvsup and Yahoo! messenger. Once I
> installed the compat stuff those binaries stopped working. I haven't had a
> chance to test Dag-Erling's theory yet, since I've still got ATA issues to
> solve before I can move my workstation back to -current.
>
> Here's an ugly thought.... what would happen if /etc/host.conf
> existed, but its contents were missing or invalid? The more I think about
> this.... I vaguely recall futzing around with /etc/host.conf around the
> time of the nsswitch.conf change, and I may have left an empty file
> hanging around to test some rc* stuff.
This would certainly explain it if that is what happened. Your 4.x binaries
would have ended up not being able to resolve anything.
> If that's the case, I apologize if
> this has been a waste of time... although it might be nice to build
> something into libc that says "If the contents of
> /etc/{host|nsswitch}.conf don't make any sense, fall back to the default."
>
> Looking for somewhere to hide...
>
> Doug
> --
> "We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail."
> - George W. Bush, President of the United States
> September 20, 2001
>
> Do YOU Yahoo!?
>
>
>
Cheers,
-Peter
--
Peter Wemm - peter@FreeBSD.org; peter@yahoo-inc.com; peter@netplex.com.au
"All of this is for nothing if we don't go to the stars" - JMS/B5
To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-arch" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20011014041847.33E0C3810>