Re: Hostname questions

["Jean-Christian Imbeault" <jean_christian@example.com>]

>From: Jake Morrison <jake_morrison@example.com>
>
> > And what a convention!
>
>Welcome to Unix :-)

The more I learn the more I like it. Now I am starting to understand why my 
sysadmin at university was so grump and terse! :)

>Did you reboot? It is written by the startup scripts.
>I think it is only there for informational purposes, though,
>so you are not in trouble if it's not there.

Yes, I did reboot. It's still empty. Glad to know it's not really needed. 
But then that begs the question . . . why is it there at all?

>Some do, but that's not really proper. They should get it by
>calling /bin/hostname or something like calling gethostbyaddr(3)
>on their own socket.

That's what I've been waiting for someone to say!! So now I know that 
/etc/hosts doesn't need and shouldn't need an entry for my machine.

But I have to put as a hack against bad-mannered apps :)

Jc
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