unsure about /etc/hosts

[Nikolas Britton]

Oliver Fuchs wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I am at the moment unsure about the localhost entries in my /etc/hosts. From 
>/usr/src/etc/hosts I have found this one:
>
># Host Database
>#
># This file should contain the addresses and aliases for local hosts that
># share this file.  Replace 'my.domain' below with the domainname of your
># machine.
>#
>#
>::1			localhost localhost.my.domain
>127.0.0.1		localhost localhost.my.domain
>
>So my hostname is I.and.I so the /etc/hosts entry must be:
>::1			localhost localhost.and.I
>127.0.0.1		localhost localhost.and.I
>
>Now regarding some programs (e.g. mutt) this option is not able to deliver
>mail locally instead putting it in /var/spool/mqueue or
>/var/spool/clientmqueue.
>
>If I use this:
>::1			localhost I.and.I
>127.0.0.1		localhost I.and.I
>
>I have no problems with sending the mail locally. So I am a little bit
>confused about what is the correct way to define the localhost in
>/etc/hosts.
>
>Thanx in advance
>
>Oliver
>  
>
I'd like to know this too as I have seen meny diffrent ways too layout 
the hosts file. here what I got in mine:

::1                localhost localhost.intranet
127.0.0.1     localhost localhost.intranet
::1                spectra spectra.intranet
127.0.0.1     spectra spectra.intranet

but this same hosts file also says to do it like this:
# Imaginary network.
#10.0.0.2               myname.my.domain myname
#10.0.0.3               myfriend.my.domain myfriend

So which way do you list them. And say spectra.intranet (me) am I 
suppost to list it as localhost or the real ip address?