Re: [gentoo-dev] rfc: /etc/hostname on gentoo

[Daniel Campbell]

On 08/23/2016 12:57 PM, William Hubbs wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 23, 2016 at 02:45:20PM -0400, Rich Freeman wrote:
>> Symlinking /proc into /etc/hostname is still useful because it not
>> only handles container hostnames (keep in mind that two containers
>> could share the same /etc), but it also covers cases where the
>> hostname changes, and it doesn't require writing to etc (which in
>> general shouldn't be used to store state).
>>
>> The people who are saying /etc/hostname shouldn't really exist are
>> completely right.  However, if for whatever reason we did want to
>> provide it for compatibility (just like mtab), then a symlink to /proc
>> at least ensures it returns the same answer as the system call.
>
> My understanding of /etc/hostname is it is a widely used standard for
> storing the name of the host and it is used to set the name of the host
> on bootup. I just ran a google search of /etc/hostname, and it gets a
> number of hits.
>
> Here is what I'm looking at in OpenRC:
>
> I am planning to change the logic in /etc/init.d/hostname so that if
> /etc/hostname exists, the first word out of that file will be used as
> the hostname rather than any setting in /etc/conf.d/hostname. If you
> don't want /etc/hostname, just don't create it and the settings from
> /etc/conf.d/hostname will still be used.
>
> It turns out this has nothing to do with the Docker situation I brought
> up. Whether or not a docker container should be able to access the
> hostname of the host it is running on is a separate question.
>
> William
>
That seems like a fair compromise. Those who want /etc/hostname get to
use it, those who don't won't need to change anything.

Will other packages be able to modify or create the file and thus
jeopardize anything?

-- 
Daniel Campbell - Gentoo Developer
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