On Thu, 8 Apr 2004, Keven Ring wrote:
>
> >Exactly whats required for laptops :) - with one more step
> >
> >DHCP Client: I'll make my own DNS entry in /etc/hosts for mmm.nnn.ooo
> >
> >Satish
> Wow. In a nutshell, you have reduced this whole thread to: In some
> way, shape, or form, get the hostname that you want your machine to be
> in either DNS or /etc/hosts. As others have pointed out [myself
> included], this is not even needed if you set your hostname to something
> other than "localhost", "localhost.localdomain", or "(none)". There are
> GUIs for doing this, and there are the files that the GUIs edit.
>
> As I indicated earlier, if your ip address is really changing and you
> want your hostname to remain the same, then you should consider having a
> dynamic DNS. If your ip address and hostname changes, then all you need
> is DNS [assuming there is a one-to-one between ip and hostname].
> /etc/hosts is fine for static stuff. Keep dynamic stuff out of it.
>
> I was merely highlighting the intriguing [and somewhat useless]
> conversation that could occur between the DHCP client and server. Now,
> having said that, I'd say it's a great design - there are 50 ways of
> doing the same thing, each of them with their own uses and benefits. It
> just means that it appears silly to ask the DHCP server for a hostname
> when you know you are going to ignore it...
I must say I was just adding to the 'intriguing' protocol you had -
another important step - which is also required for the non-localhost
approach :) - but I do use the non-localhost approach - and the
suggestion is well taken.
And I must admit the problem I'm solving is slightly different than
the one that initated this thread.
Problem specification: x/xauth is screwed up. When hostname changes -
the current authentication is broken (and you can no longer open
xterms etc..)
As a simple demonstation for this problem - do (as root):
hostname
xterm
hostname foobar
xterm
- solution 1: don't let DHCP-client change the hostname [which is
where most of the discussions of this thread is dealing with]
a: (recommended) use non-localhost hostname - and have an entry
for it in /etc/hosts for DNS
b: if the hostname gets changed by dhcp-client - change it back
using 'hostname' command. This gets annoying with
short-lease-dhcp servers.
c: the alternate intriguing protocol - just for fun :)
- solution 2: fix 'xauth/some-other-script' some-other-way so that
'if the hostname changes' then the appropriate xauth for this new
'hostname' is added automatically. I managed to this manually once,
but don't remember the command anymore. But this approach has a
potential to preserve ip addresses/names.
Satish
