bin/172846: bsdinstall - setting hostname

[Devin Teske]

sysinstall (and as the PR points out, xauth) used/uses gethostbyname(3) which could hang if DNS wasn't configured or was configured incorrectly. That's the nature of why sysinstall automatically populates hosts(5) with an entry for the current hostname.

I've been thinking a lot about whether this is still needed today.

Most programs have switched away from gethostbyname(3) and are instead using getaddrinfo(3) and/or getnameinfo(3), but I imagine that since they are from the same family of functions, the replacements to gethostbyname(3) would hang similarly on un/misconfigured DNS.

My thinking is that…

1. Like Nathan, I never configure our systems this way, but that's because we always have working DNS and if a hang occurs, we know why

2. I believe that maintaining a hosts(5) entry for the local machine name couldn't hurt (but only help those that may not fully grok why their system is hanging ala illusive typo in resolv.conf etc.).

-- 
Devin


On Dec 31, 2012, at 6:24 AM, Nathan Whitehorn wrote:

> On 12/31/12 09:10, J B wrote:
>> The following reply was made to PR bin/172846; it has been noted by GNATS.
>> 
>> From: J B <jb.1234abcd at gmail.com>
>> To: FreeBSD-gnats-submit at freebsd.org, freebsd-bugs at freebsd.org
>> Cc:  
>> Subject: Re: bin/172846: bsdinstall - setting hostname
>> Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2012 15:02:06 +0100
>> 
>> Related problem:
>> misc/174859: Installation: /etc/hosts file
>> jb
>> _______________________________________________
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> 
> Is this something it actually makes sense to do? I personally would
> never configure my systems this way -- having it done automatically
> seems a mistake to me.
> -Nathan
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