Can someone with far more knowledge than me help here?
I have a co-worker with a question;
"
Where should i set the server's hostname?
There seems to be multiple places and i don't understand the
differences.
1. # hostname mailserver.mydomain.com
2. # echo "127.0.0.1 mailserver
mailserver.mydomain.com">>/etc/hosts
3. # vi /etc/sysconfig/network, add
"HOSTNAME=mailserver.mydomain.com"
So far i think i understand that postfix likes to see the
hostname in the hosts file, but things i have read imply
that postfix is pretty clever at working it out from
multiple places.
Apache also seems to be clever, but the conf file recommends
that you hard code the server name into the config. If you
don't, where does apache look?
If you set the hostname during an install, where is that
written?
If i use method 1 above ("hostname mailserver.mydomain.com")
i seem to have to do that at every boot (or script it of
course) whereas the edit to /etc/hosts or
/etc/sysconfig/network would survive restarts.
I have read the information in "man hostname" and understand
that "hostname -f" gets its info from the hosts file, but
where does the function "gethostname" get its info from?
Finally - which method do you all use to set you hostname?
"
Thanks all,
MrKiwi