Hi!

I'm really clueless. I have to configure two network interface cards. I want to change the /etc/hosts file so that the hostname is defined to my ip-address and not to the loopback device. In the following extract (I put in line numbers to make it easier) I am confused as to where I should type in my specific details:

****************************************
1 ip_address=`/bin/hostname -i`
2 host_name=`/bin/hostname -f`
3 short_name=`/bin/hostname -s`
4 sed -i "s/127.0.0.1.*/127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost/g" /etc/hosts
5 sed -i "s/$ip_address/#$ip_address/g" /etc/hosts
6 echo "$ip_address $host_name $short_name" >> /etc/hosts
*****************************************

Question 1)
Do I put my computer's hostname at the /bin/hostname part in line 1, or do I put it at host_name in line 2 ?

For example, if my hostname is gnlserv01, and the ip-address for the private interface is 192.168.1.254 would I type the following into a terminal for line 1:

ip_address = `/bin/gnlserv01 -i`

or

192.168.1.254 = `/bin/hostname -i`

or something else?

Question 2)
Why do I need a short_name, and can I make it anything I want?


It doesn't seem as if it reverts to the loopback device if I do the following:

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[root@gnlserv01 ~]# /bin/hostname
gnlserv01
[root@gnlserv01 ~]# ping -c1 gnlserv01
PING gnlserv01.getec (192.168.1.254) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from gnlserv01.getec (192.168.1.254): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.025 ms

--- gnlserv01.getec ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 1 received, 0% packet loss, time 0ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.025/0.025/0.025/0.000 ms
**************************************

This is what is in my /etc/hosts at present:

************************************
# Do not remove the following line, or various programs
# that require network functionality will fail.
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
192.168.1.254 gnlserv01.getec gnlserv01
::1 localhost.localdomain localhost gnlserv01
************************************

Question 3)
My public interface is configured (hm, that's how I get on the internet), should it be seen in the /etc/hosts or not?

1. Setting the Linux Hostname


2. the short name would be the hostname, the long version would be the Fully Qualified Domain name.. the hostname is the first part of the fqdn, and therefor should match..

mypc = hostname
mypc.mydomain.com = FQDN


3. if you needed to assign a name to the external interface that would typically be done with a DNS server. I wouldn't bother putting anything for it in the hosts file.