Postfix- What is Hostname??

Chiragrs · 05-11-2007, 09:58 AM

I want to create my own mail server. In the main.cf file, where it says hostname, am I not supposed to enter the IP address for my computer? I did it yesterday and posfix was able to startup without any problems. Today, however, it says that its a bad parameter value and I am not able to start postfix.

I changed hostname from IP address to simply "localhost" and I am now able to start postfix.. how does this work? What exactly is localhost?

Linville79 · 05-11-2007, 11:18 AM

"localhost" is the method in which to reference the local host machine.

You should be able type in something as simple as "hostname" on a command line to see what the machines actual hostname is, if assigned.