On Mon, 31 Oct 2005, Tom Duerbusch wrote: > > I started looking at my older Linux images. Most don't have an entry > in the /etc/hosts file. Some do. > > I have a documentation folder for each Linux image I've created. I > don't have any entries on me creating entries in the 'hosts' file. > > So, in trying to understand this futher.... > > Is entries in the /etc/hosts file, really required? > Or is it "older" technology, that normally is replaced by some other > function?
/etc/hosts was the predecessor to the DNS, when the internet was only a few hundred hosts. There was a central /etc/hosts file, which was updated via ftp to the various and assorted other hosts on the internet. This, obviously, does not scale, so the distributed database that is the DNS was created. > > So, is this more current, or obsolete in SLES9? /etc/hosts is reasonably only useful these days for bypassing DNS query's for hosts on a LAN/WAN by hardcoding their addresses, and providing functionality to some protocols and applications thereto, like X11 for example, which will barf up a lung if there is not an entry to indicate the hostname of the box attempting to connect (usually the local machine). Proper functioning of the networking subsystems also requires AT LEAST 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost so the loopback network interface works properly. Scott > > Thanks > > Tom Duerbusch > THD Cosulting > (What kind of mistakes do ghosts make? > > Boo, Boos!) > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit > http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390 > sleekfreak pirate broadcast http://sleekfreak.ath.cx:81/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
