Question about the /etc/hosts file

[Derek Ragona]

At 07:54 PM 4/10/2007, RW wrote:
>On Tue, 10 Apr 2007 15:52:43 -0500
>Derek Ragona <derek at computinginnovations.com> wrote:
>
> > At 03:48 PM 4/10/2007, L33T Networks wrote:
> > >What is the second line with 10.20.30.199, and the hostname ends in a
> > >period? I've never seen this in a host file previous to FBSD v.6.
> > >
> > >apollo# cat /etc/hosts
> > >#::1                    localhost.mydomain.com localhost
> > >127.0.0.1               localhost.mydomain.com localhost
> > >10.20.30.199            apollo.mydomain.com apollo
> > >10.20.30.199            apollo.mydomain.com.
> > >
> > >Is this something that's required for other IP addresses that will
> > >be added to the hosts file in the future?
> >
> > Names ending in a dot represent the fully qualified domain name.  You
> > do it all on one line but it gets too long to easily see and edit.
> >
>But that doesn't explain why apollo.mydomain.com. appears as both a
>FQDN and a PQDN

Actually it does.  The partial names are shortcut aliases for that 
name.  On this system you can do things like:
ping apollo
ping apollo.mydomain.com
ping apollo.mydomain.com.

So can any of the network services.  Just makes it easier for us 
humans.  As names are just used so us humans don't need to memorize IP 
addresses.

         -Derek 
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