Date: Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:37:49 +0930 From: Wayne Sierke <ws@au.dyndns.ws> To: trhodes@FreeBSD.org Cc: freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: docs/124949: Discrepancy between handbook and example hosts file for localhost configuration Message-ID: <1218089269.4383.128.camel@predator-ii.buffyverse> In-Reply-To: <200808031632.m73GWU8H048418@freefall.freebsd.org> References: <200808031632.m73GWU8H048418@freefall.freebsd.org>
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On Sun, 2008-08-03 at 16:32 +0000, trhodes@FreeBSD.org wrote: > Synopsis: Discrepancy between handbook and example hosts file for localhost configuration > > State-Changed-From-To: open->closed > State-Changed-By: trhodes > State-Changed-When: Sun Aug 3 16:31:00 UTC 2008 > State-Changed-Why: > I have updated the example in the handbook, thanks for > bringing this to our attention. In fact I had hoped to elicit some discussion about whether the default localhost configuration should include the hostname or not. As mentioned in the original PR I noticed the $SUBJECT while investigating a "slow SSH login" issue. Looking at the CVS history for /src/etc/hosts seems to show that the addition (and removal) of hostname to localhost has been through a couple of iterations (starting Nov'95): Revision 1.11.2.2: Mon Oct 8 09:32:08 2001 UTC (6 years, 9 months ago) by ru Branches: RELENG_4 MFC: 1.14: removed `myname.my.domain' as another alias for `localhost'. Revision 1.14: Sat Sep 29 12:20:08 2001 UTC (6 years, 10 months ago) by ru Branches: MAIN Backout revision 1.9 that added `myname.my.domain' as another alias for `localhost'. If your /etc/nsswitch.conf has ``hosts: files dns'', and you changed `myname.my.domain' in /etc/hosts to match hostname(1), and you run inetd(8) with the -l option, any connect to `myname' using its real IP address through inetd(8), e.g. `ftp -a myname', will spam your /var/log/messages with: inetd[PID]: warning: /etc/hosts.allow, line 23: host name/name mismatch: myname.my.domain != localhost This is especially bad for -STABLE, where /etc/host.conf defaults to "files first then DNS" resolution order. Revision 1.9: Thu Apr 16 14:37:19 1998 UTC (10 years, 3 months ago) by joerg Branches: MAIN Add `myname.my.domain' as another alias for `localhost'. We set this as the initial generic hostname if the user didn't setup any NIC, but failure to resolve this name results in XF86Setup not being able to run. Revision 1.5.4.1: Sun Nov 19 17:53:28 1995 UTC (12 years, 8 months ago) by jkh Branches: RELENG_2_1_0 Put myname.my.domain by default on the loopback, resulting in less confusing startup behavior for newly installed hosts not on a network. Google will also pull up suggestions to add hostname to the localhost config to solve various networking-related "issues". I guess the upshot of all this is to consider whether it might be useful to add some text to the handbook discussing when adding (and removing) hostname to/from the localhost config might be prudent/needed? Wayne
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