Bug#246892: install: /etc/hosts does not make 127.0.0.1 resolve to localhost

[Chris Boyle <cmb@debian.org>]

Package: install
Severity: normal

The sarge installer writes an /etc/hosts file with a first line like
this. (N.B. I am reporting from another machine)

127.0.0.1	vimes	localhost

This may have been the case in earlier installers as well. The problem I
have with this is that many things expect a reverse lookup of 127.0.0.1
to return localhost. MySQL for example: if a user is allowed to log in
from localhost, and logs in over TCP from 127.0.0.1, they will appear to
come from e.g. vimes, which is not localhost, and access will be denied.

I realise there may have been a good reason for this, but other distros
include something like this:

# By the way, Arnt Gulbrandsen <agulbra@nvg.unit.no> says that 127.0.0.1
# should NEVER be named with the name of the machine.  It causes
# problems
# for some (stupid) programs, irc and reputedly talk. :^)
#

# For loopbacking.
127.0.0.1       localhost

...i.e. suggesting a machine name shouldn't be on that line *at all*,
let alone first. Please explain. :-)

-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (990, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.4.26
Locale: LANG=en_GB, LC_CTYPE=en_GB