Re: exim, local resolver, host name lookups and IPv6

["Alexander E. Patrakov" <patrakov@gmail.com>]

Steve Langasek wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 12, 2008 at 12:13:36PM +0600, Alexander E. Patrakov wrote:
> > Marc Haber wrote:
> > > In some cases, exim still looks up its IP address when a listening
> > > daemon starts up. This is why the Debian installer configures
> > > 127.0.1.1 (not 127.0.0.1) for the local hostname on installation,
> > > yielding /etc/hosts files like 
> > >
> > > 127.0.0.1       localhost
> > > 127.0.1.1       myfoo.localdomain   myfoo
>
> > <snip>
>
> > > This being said, I consider the entire 127.0.1.1 business a horrible
> > > hack which is one of the most ugly things I have ever seen. Do we have
> > > a chance to implement this in a more cleaner way, or is it still the
> > > way to go for the distribution, where we don't know zilch about the
> > > environment where an installed system is going to be used?
>
> > I second this request.
>
> Oh yes, by all means, let's flip-flop the /etc/hosts implementation back and
> forth because people /second/ it, without ever bothering to understand the
> reasons that made this necessary.

I don't understand this Debian-specific _hack_ because the unusual and 
Debian-specific 127.0.1.1 entry has no comment referring to a problem that it 
fixes ("see bug #xxxxxx" would be enough). Honestly, I even considered it my own 
typo first when I encountered the vde2 breakage.

> > Just a data point: this 127.0.1.1 setup breaks the "vde2" package (namely,
> > its slirp-based part) if a local DNS server that listens on 127.0.0.1 only
> > (e.g., pdnsd) is used.
>
> Then vde2 has broken assumptions and should be fixed.

I will file a bug against both pdnsd and vde2.

--
Alexander E. Patrakov