Re: bad display name

From: Keve Nagy (see_my_sig_at_address.invalid)
Date: 09/15/05 

Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2005 11:38:43 +0100

David Lord wrote:
> I don't know that it makes a difference but example given in
> /etc/hosts has fqdn followed by alias.
>
> # 10.0.0.2 myname.my.domain mydomain

Good point!

AFAIK, it is just the lookup order it changes.
Suppose your domain is mydomain.internal and you set the system up so
that for a not fully qualified name it will assume this domain.
An entry like:

10.0.0.2 onehost onehost.otherdomain.internal

... *may* cause some trouble by returning onehost.mydomain.internal for
a query on 10.0.0.2 first, instead of onehost.otherdomain.internal.

With the line:

10.0.0.2 onehost.otherdomain.internal onehost

... this will never happen.

On the other hand, most of the time you need a lookup on the hostname to
query the corresponding IP number. In which case, the two lines don't
make any difference.

Still, just to be on the safe side it is probably better to use the
style with the FQDN first and followed by the hostname only.
I think, even I will change mine to use that format.

Keve