Re: bug in hostname

[Steven Augart]

I could not agree more.    I
am not terribly pleased that there is now a simple-minded "hostname"
command in "coreutils"; after I installed 5.0.92 (cvs head) in
my Linux machine's /usr/local/bin, suddenly the machine renamed itself
to "--fqdn".  Why?  Because at least one program that
"root" runs calls "hostname --fqdn" to get the host's
fully qualified domain name.

Linux, at least, ships with a fine "hostname"
in net-tools 1.60, and I'm not clear on why the world needs a second one,
but I wasn't part of the bug-coreutils list at the time that decision was
made.   (I've just searched the archives and can't find any discussion
of such an issue.)

There has been other correspondence
discussing issues of this kind with "hostname" at http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-coreutils/2003-04/msg00038.html
(I like Peter Breitenlohner's suggestion
that an option should be available not to install some of the executables
in coreutils, such as "hostname" and "kill", which
are already provided by other packages) and http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-coreutils/2003-03/msg00091.html
(Bob Proulx's <rant>...</rant> at the end is particularly good).

--Steve Augart

Martin MOKREJŠ <address@hidden> Sent by: address@hidden 10/07/2003 10:47 AM

To:        address@hidden         cc:                 Subject:        bug in hostname

Hi,
  hostname(1) does not accept -s option to print short hostname,
ie. not foo.bar.baz but only foo. It is required on Tru64Unix 5.1A
during system startup. When  hostname from coreutils is found,
the system hostname is set improperly(to "-s").

  Please provide full compatibility:

hostname(1)                  
                     
              hostname(1)



NAME

  hostname - Sets or displays the name of the current host system

SYNOPSIS

  hostname [-s] [new_name]

DESCRIPTION

  The hostname command sets or displays the name of the current host
system.
  If you use the -s option, the short form of the host name is displayed.
  Only the superuser can set the hostname.

EXAMPLES

   1.  To display the short form of the local host name, enter:
            $ hostname -s
            host1

   2.  To change the name of the local host, enter:
            # hostname west







addax.gsf.de#  /afs/gsf.de/alpha_dux51/usr/bin/hostname --help
Usage: /afs/gsf.de/alpha_dux51/usr/bin/hostname [NAME]
  or:  /afs/gsf.de/alpha_dux51/usr/bin/hostname OPTION
Print or set the hostname of the current system.

      --help     display this help and exit
      --version  output version information and exit

Report bugs to <address@hidden>.
addax.gsf.de# rcmgr get HOSTNAME
addax.gsf.de
addax.gsf.de# /afs/gsf.de/alpha_dux51/usr/bin/hostname
addax.gsf.de
addax.gsf.de# /usr/sbin/hostname
addax.gsf.de
addax.gsf.de# /afs/gsf.de/alpha_dux51/usr/bin/hostname -s
addax.gsf.de# /usr/sbin/hostname
-s
addax.gsf.de#


-- 
Martin Mokrejs <address@hidden>, <address@hidden>
PGP5.0i key is at http://www.natur.cuni.cz/~mmokrejs
MIPS / Institute for Bioinformatics <http://mips.gsf.de>
GSF - National Research Center for Environment and Health
Ingolstaedter Landstrasse 1, D-85764 Neuherberg, Germany
tel.: +49-89-3187 3683 , fax: +49-89-3187 3585


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