Date: Fri, 16 Aug 1996 14:02:11 -0400 (EDT) From: Thomas David Rivers <ponds!rivers@dg-rtp.dg.com> To: imb@asstdc.com.au, ponds!ponds!rivers Cc: ponds!freebsd.org!hackers Subject: Re: Problem in 2.1.5 install and loopback interface. Message-ID: <199608161802.OAA04416@lakes.water.net>
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>
> > After a 2.1.5 install, you'll find in sysconfig a line
> > to initialize the loopback interface:
>
> > ifconfig_lo0="inet localhost"
>
> > Well - if your using a nameserver, and the machine booting happens
> > to *be* the nameserver, this won't work. Since named isn't
> > up yet (how could it be before the interfaces are configured?),
> > you can't resolve the name "localhost"
>
> <sigh> .. man 5 hosts ..
>
>
Hmmm, let me restate this then...
That is, if you are a nameserver, and you are also a name client
(i.e. you have an /etc/resolv.conf) you should use the IP address
when configuring your interfaces, since you:
1) Are a client so /etc/hosts isn't examined until after
a _long_ time out.
2) Are the server the client needs to contact and
named isn't running yet.
I see that the man page says:
When using the name server named(8), this file provides a backup when
the name server is not running. For the name server, it is suggested
that only a few addresses be included in this file. These include ad-
dress for the local interfaces that ifconfig(8) needs at boot time and a
few machines on the local network.
It's not that it won't work, it's just that we have to wait for
a long time for the gethostbyname() request to time out before
proceeding... if we used 127.0.0.1 we can avoid that wait...
It was just a little spooky when I was setting up the nameserver,
the machine would just sit there for awhile during boot-up
and then proceed.
- Dave Rivers -
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