Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!udel!rochester!kodak!ispd-newsserver!sloey
From: sloey@ssd.kodak.com (Jim Sloey (253-7956))
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains
Subject: Re: How to create /etc/hosts from zone
Keywords: hosts
Message-ID: <1990Nov16.150818.5844@ssd.kodak.com>
Date: 16 Nov 90 15:08:18 GMT
References: <19523@oolong.la.locus.com> <1667@devildog.att.com> <1990Nov15.185211.876@hemel.bull.co.uk>
Sender: news@ssd.kodak.com
Organization: Eastman Kodak
Lines: 18

In article <1990Nov15.185211.876@hemel.bull.co.uk> pmoore@hemel.bull.co.uk (Paul Moore) writes:
>another possibility (ie resolving the problem of keeping hosts for stupid
>systems and needing a named database) is to keep the /etc/hosts as the
>master a use a utility to generate the named database from it.        

I tried this for a while about 3 years ago, but found there was no way to
keep MX, WKS, and HINFO fields updated without forcing structured comments
into the host file. 
Instead I wrote a shell program (makehosts) to create hosts from domain data 
using nslookup and zone transfers. It is called from an editor (vins) which 
locks the file and updates the serial field like vipw, then creates a new host 
table using HINFO for the comments.
Unfortunately, I left out the CNAMES, so my program won't help you much.

-- 
			Jim Sloey
	ARPA  sloey@kodak.com   Profs - kodakr(sloey)
	Phone (716) 253-7956  	FAX (716) 253-7443