Hi,
Can someone tell me why the hostname of a machine is added as an alias
for 127.0.0.1 to /etc/hosts during the installation i.e. why do we
have something like this in /etc/hosts?
--- begin ---
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost pluto
--- end ---
With the default (and normal) /etc/nsswitch.conf, first /etc/hosts is
consulted and then DNS.
Having the hostname as alias for the localhost IP address already got
me in troubles two times:
(1) When adding a new host to a Kerberos realm. It took me quite some
time to find out why I could not login to a newly added machine
(using the same procedure as on my Woody boxes). Part of the
problem was the fact that /etc/hosts contained the hostname (not
fully qualified) as alias for 127.0.0.1.
(2) When creating a sudoers file with Host_Alias definition. Using the
(short) hostname makes that sudo keeps asking for a password while
it should not. Using the IP address or deleting the hostname alias
in /etc/hosts resolves this issue.
BTW, note that the output of hostname --fqdn shows
localhost.localdomain. Deleting the alias shows the correct fully
qualified hostname.
Thus, why is the hostname added as an alias for 127.0.0.1?
P.S.: All Sarge machines are installed using the network (PXE) so they
get their IP via DHCP. After installation however, I statically assign
their IP (BIOS first tries to boot from the network (only used to
install), then from the harddisk).
cu,
--
lenaerts.frank@pandora.be
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