[lug] set host name

[Dean Brissinger]

On Tuesday, December 06, 2005 6:36 PM Hugh Brown wrote:

> On Tue, 2005-12-06 at 19:00 -0500, Gordon Golding wrote:
>> Setting the host name.
>> When I look on the internet, there are so many variations, I figured
>> I'd ask for input. 
>> 
>> Is it that easy?  Add "myhost<TAB>" before localhost.localdomain?
> 
> It's sometimes that easy, but then other programs (notably mysql)
> will wig out because they are expecting 'localhost.localdomain' or
> 'localhost' to be the first hostname listed for 127.0.0.1.  
> 
> Experiment.  I remember spending a good chunk of time with developers
> using the getHostBy* functions in Java because it was returning
> something unexpected.  

Agreed.  I had java developers complain because some machines resolved
to a FQDN and others resolved to the short name.  This broke software
interestingly enough.

In my environment I put a LOT of research and extra effort in to
building a DHCP+DDNS environment that would handle every possible
platform and DHCP client that could show up.  Then made everyone resolve
to the DNS (see also nsswitch.conf) and always get a "standard"
response.  My environment wound up being broken anyway by machines with
two network interfaces (wifi laptops).  So don't forget to consider that
possibility too.