Re: /etc/hosts file

On 20:14 21 May 2003, Bill Gradwohl <[email protected]> wrote:
| Cameron Simpson said:
| >You don't need a name server for what you seem to want.
| >Just use your company's name server.
| 
| Long story short, can't use a name server anywhere- period. Have to use a hosts file locally.

Ok.

| >But the "host" command is specificly for testing DNS.
| >There wouldn't be any point to it if it consulted /etc/hosts.
| Then what's the point of /etc/nsswitch.conf? It's my understanding that its the arbiter of how things are supposed to work.

It affects most things. But not the "host" command.
RTFM: it says "host - DNS lookup utility". The official precludes it from
using /etc/hosts, because that's not DNS.

Just write yourself a tiny perl script that uses gethostbyname()
if you need something like that.

| >Ping doesn't do reverse lookups!
| >You will find reverse lookup works just fine, if you use something that
| >actually tries reverse lookup. Ping does not try.
| 
| The ping utility does reverse resolution unless you specify -n. Even Windoze ping does reverse resolution.

Hmm. Mine doesn't. But I seem in the manual what you say. Hmm.

Cheers,
--
Cameron Simpson, DoD#743        [email protected]    http://www.zip.com.au/~cs/

Complete honesty in word and deed is a good way to get punched out.
        - Shanti Goldstein