From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Apr 11 13:58:38 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 695A516A404 for ; Wed, 11 Apr 2007 13:58:38 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from derek@computinginnovations.com) Received: from betty.computinginnovations.com (dsl081-227-250.chi1.dsl.speakeasy.net [64.81.227.250]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1556413C46E for ; Wed, 11 Apr 2007 13:58:35 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from derek@computinginnovations.com) Received: from p28.computinginnovations.com (dhcp-10-20-30-100.computinginnovations.com [10.20.30.100]) (authenticated bits=0) by betty.computinginnovations.com (8.13.8/8.12.11) with ESMTP id l3BDvg6I002411; Wed, 11 Apr 2007 08:57:43 -0500 (CDT) Message-Id: <6.0.0.22.2.20070411085439.0258beb8@mail.computinginnovations.com> X-Sender: derek@mail.computinginnovations.com X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 6.0.0.22 Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 08:57:09 -0500 To: RW , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org From: Derek Ragona In-Reply-To: <20070411015451.142f4807@gumby.homeunix.com> References: <6.0.0.22.2.20070410155137.0257aea8@mail.computinginnovations.com> <20070411015451.142f4807@gumby.homeunix.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-ComputingInnovations-MailScanner-Information: Please contact the ISP for more information X-ComputingInnovations-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-ComputingInnovations-MailScanner-From: derek@computinginnovations.com X-Spam-Status: No Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Cc: Subject: Re: Question about the /etc/hosts file X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 13:58:38 -0000 At 07:54 PM 4/10/2007, RW wrote: >On Tue, 10 Apr 2007 15:52:43 -0500 >Derek Ragona wrote: > > > At 03:48 PM 4/10/2007, L33T Networks wrote: > > >What is the second line with 10.20.30.199, and the hostname ends in a > > >period? I've never seen this in a host file previous to FBSD v.6. > > > > > >apollo# cat /etc/hosts > > >#::1 localhost.mydomain.com localhost > > >127.0.0.1 localhost.mydomain.com localhost > > >10.20.30.199 apollo.mydomain.com apollo > > >10.20.30.199 apollo.mydomain.com. > > > > > >Is this something that's required for other IP addresses that will > > >be added to the hosts file in the future? > > > > Names ending in a dot represent the fully qualified domain name. You > > do it all on one line but it gets too long to easily see and edit. > > >But that doesn't explain why apollo.mydomain.com. appears as both a >FQDN and a PQDN Actually it does. The partial names are shortcut aliases for that name. On this system you can do things like: ping apollo ping apollo.mydomain.com ping apollo.mydomain.com. So can any of the network services. Just makes it easier for us humans. As names are just used so us humans don't need to memorize IP addresses. -Derek -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. MailScanner thanks transtec Computers for their support.