From owner-freebsd-hackers  Sun Sep 14 23:41:45 1997
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-hackers>
Received: (from root@localhost)
          by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id XAA05241
          for hackers-outgoing; Sun, 14 Sep 1997 23:41:45 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from verdi.nethelp.no (verdi.nethelp.no [195.1.171.130])
          by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id XAA05219
          for <hackers@FreeBSD.ORG>; Sun, 14 Sep 1997 23:41:39 -0700 (PDT)
From: sthaug@nethelp.no
Received: (qmail 23932 invoked by uid 1001); 15 Sep 1997 06:41:35 +0000 (GMT)
To: grog@lemis.com
Cc: kpneal@pobox.com, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: Why not DNS (was: nfs startup - perhaps it is a problem)
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Mon, 15 Sep 1997 15:47:04 +0930"
References: <19970915154704.16731@lemis.com>
X-Mailer: Mew version 1.05+ on Emacs 19.28.2
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=us-ascii
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 08:41:34 +0200
Message-ID: <23930.874305694@verdi.nethelp.no>
Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
X-Loop: FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk

> > - Convenience for temporary updates. Sometimes I want to add a name
> > quickly, use it a little bit, and then remove it again. And there is
> > no reason why these names should be available on the Internet. It's
> > quicker to edit /etc/hosts than to edit two zone files and rehup
> > named.
> 
> Why two zone files?  Do you want reverse lookup for the temps as well?
> But I really don't see much difference in the time.  I regularly do
> this with DNS.

Yes, two zone files to get the reverse lookup also.

> > - Assigning names to hosts in other parts of the Internet which are
> > not in DNS. These names will of course only be available locally, but
> > that's all I need.
> 
> That works with DNS as well.  I have a nickname for hub.FreeBSD.org on
> the local system.

But it doesn't work for reverse lookups.

> > - Likewise, it is sometimes convenient to *override* the names of
> > hosts which are already in the DNS but not under my control.
> 
> Hmmm.  Can you explain what you mean here?  Do you mean that you want
> to remove all trace of the name?  You can't do that and run any kind
> of DNS, including remote nameds via resolv.conf.

I mean that sometimes I find it convenient to assign a different name
to a host already in the DNS (and not under my control). This could be
because the information in the DNS is *incorrect*, or for several other
reasons. If I use /etc/hosts override, I can control this - both in the
forward and the reverse direction.

Steinar Haug, Nethelp consulting, sthaug@nethelp.no