[GLLUG] hostname with DHCP

[Matt Graham]

On Thursday 04 September 2003 13:13, after a long battle with 
technology, Benjamin Minshall wrote:
> Todd Torrey wrote:
>> Thanks to everybody for the help! Now I have another question. How
>> do I set the hostname if I'm getting an IP addrress via DHCP. The
>> examples of /etc/hosts that I'm seeing are for static IP addresses.

> That depends on the DHCP client program that you're using.  If it's
> dhclient, then look in the configuration file /etc/dhclient.conf.  If
> it's pump, then I believe the config file is /etc/pump/pump.conf;
> although I haven't used pump in a while, so I can't be sure.

...and you use -H to make dhcpcd set the hostname of the machine to the 
hostname received from the DHCP server.  This does not, AFAICT, update 
/etc/hosts , but you can fiddle that with a small script.  -H is not 
that useful in the real world--who wants to have their machine's 
hostname be "uselessgabble-1.2.3.4-somewhere.myisp.org" instead of 
"usefulname"?  Also note that if you switch your machine's hostname 
while an X server is running, you may not be able to start any more X 
clients without restarting the X server.  (Also, I thought that 
dhclient and pump were deprecated.)

I don't think you *have* to use -H when you're obtaining your IP via 
DHCP, though.  All my machines use DHCP, and I use "dhcpcd -d eth0" on 
all of them.  All my machines have an entry of the form

127.0.0.1   MACHINENAME

...in /etc/hosts, and that prevents DNS-related slowdowns when starting 
X clients, and since the machine's hostname never changes, my 
.Xauthority is always valid.  MACHINENAME is simply the name in 
/etc/hostname .

-- 
   Something unpleasant is coming when men are anxious to tell the 
   truth.   --Benjamin Disraeli
There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see