Re: gethostname returns loginname on "Pather Server" version
Re: gethostname returns loginname on "Pather Server" version
- Subject: Re: gethostname returns loginname on "Pather Server" version
- From: Justin Walker <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2004 16:47:09 -0800
On Friday, February 6, 2004, at 10:53 AM, Jason Linhart wrote:
On 2/6/04 12:26 PM Justin Walker (email@hidden) wrote:
My point about gethostname() is that this value is totally unrelated
to
the information provided by gethostbyname(). The former is just some
string. It has no relation to DNS.
gethostname() is defined to be the "standard host name for the current
machine", which the current login name most certainly is not.
Au contraire: 'sethostname()' is a procedure which takes an argument, a
string, from an undefined source, and plants it in the kernel for later
retrieval by 'gethostname()'. Yours is a common misconception, but one
which can cause problems, as we've seen.
Bottom line: don't use gethostname(); anyone with root access on that
machine can set the 'hostname' to be anything he wants. It is not
related to any "standard", except by convention.
and the kernel thinks that is the hostname because some
other piece of code ran earlier to 'sethostname()' to "admin".
Whatever piece of software that was, presumably provided by Apple, has
a
bug. It should not be calling sethostname() with the current login name
(which I assume it is doing based on what others have said). If Apple
would fix their bug, then Sanjay Arora's code would work.
You are making a string of assumptions that have not been validated.
gethostname() has a long and checkered history.
Amen.
As for the remainder of your message, you are correct in quoting Quinn,
but you are not correct in the leap from there to the use of 'hostname'.
Sanjay, in any case, should look into getnameinfo/getaddrinfo, to see
what they can do for his project. Reliance on 'gethostname()' will
just lead him back to this small quagmire.
Regards,
Justin
--
Justin C. Walker, Curmudgeon-At-Large *
Institute for General Semantics | "Weaseling out of things is
what
| separates us from the animals.
| Well, except the weasel."
| - Homer J Simpson
*--------------------------------------*-------------------------------*
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