...
> I still wonder why it also works if hostname is only set in /etc/hosts like:
>
> 127.0.0.1 localhost
> 10.0.0.50 myserver.domain.example myserver
>
> and $HOSTNAME is undefined.
Ah, got it:
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-post
...
if need_hostname; then
IPADDR=`LANG= LC_ALL= ifconfig ${DEVICE} | grep 'inet addr' |
awk -F: '{ print $2 } ' | awk '{ print $1 }'`
eval `/bin/ipcalc --silent --hostname ${IPADDR}`
if [ "$?" = "0" ]; the
set_hostname $HOSTNAME
fi
fi
...
So the conclusion seems to be:
If you have a local interface only you should just set:
127.0.0.1 localhost
::1 localhost6
in /etc/hosts and
HOSTNAME=localhost
in /etc/sysconfig/network
This means it is not suggested to have a hostname other than localhost
on a loopback only box.
If you have an network interface configured /etc/hosts may look like:
127.0.0.1 localhost
::1 localhost6
10.0.0.50 host.domain.example host
and
HOSTNAME=host.domain.example
in /etc/sysconfig/network
Best Regards
Marcus