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Date: Fri, 16 Aug 1996 12:41:58 -0600 (MDT)
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From: Nate Williams <nate@mt.sri.com>
To: Joe Greco <jgreco@brasil.moneng.mei.com>
Cc: roberto@keltia.freenix.fr (Ollivier Robert), freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Problem in 2.1.5 install and loopback interface.
In-Reply-To: <199608161821.NAA16102@brasil.moneng.mei.com>
References: <199608161702.TAA25462@keltia.freenix.fr>
	<199608161821.NAA16102@brasil.moneng.mei.com>
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Joe Greco writes:
> > According to Thomas David Rivers:
> > > 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"
> > > 
> > > This should probably change to:
> > > 
> > >   ifconfig_lo0="inet 127.0.0.1"
> > 
> > You should use "hosts, bind" in /etc/host.conf and populate /etc/hosts with
> > some important values like localhost and your primary interfaces. That way,
> > you don't need a DNS for booting.
> 
> So I am NOT the only person who feels this way  :-)
> 
> Can anybody explain the reason that it is done the other way around right
> now?  It seems to me that if you specify something in /etc/hosts, there must
> be a really freakin' good reason for it, so why not have the system abide by
> your wishes?

One of the network RFC's.  Also, in the 'olden days', you specified all
of your hosts in /etc/hosts, and when a machine changed it's address you
couldn't get to it.  By forcing it to use BIND, you make sure this
doesn't happen.

The worst that can happen is that things take a bit longer to occur,
where with the default behavior reversed it can really hose people up.
Anyone with half a clue can change the default behavior if they have
'special' circumstances.


Nate