Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!mips!spool.mu.edu!agate!ucbvax!MICKEY.YCC.YALE.EDU!Watt-Alan
From: Watt-Alan@MICKEY.YCC.YALE.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains
Subject: Re: Building /etc/hosts from DNS anyone?
Message-ID: <9106052021.AA29681@mickey.ycc.yale.edu>
Date: 5 Jun 91 20:21:24 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Distribution: inet
Organization: The Internet
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Thomas Tornblom (t_tornblom@nexus.se) writes:

>Has anyone built tools for creating /etc/hosts?
>
>I'm tired of having to manage two sets of files manually when running YP, or
>am I missing something?
>
>I thought that the -b flag would solve the problem, getting away with the
>yp map for hosts but it seems that yp requires the local hosts to be in
>the maps.
>
>I've been fiddling with dig using zone transfer and piping through a
>collection  of awk scripts to create the hosts file and they are almost 
>working but if someone has done this already I'd be glad to know.
>
>Thomas
>--
>Real life:      Thomas Tornblom             Email:  t_tornblom@nexus.se
>Snail mail:     Communicator Nexus          Phone:  +46 18 171814
>		Box 857                     Fax:    +46 18 696516
>		S - 751 08 Uppsala, Sweden

What we do instead is build both from a "local.txt" file, kept in the
format specified by RFC 952.  The original tool to do this was a big
awk/sed/grep/shell script written by Morrow Long here.  I've been
working on a replacement written in perl.  Although it is a few
details short of generating correct DNS source files, this project
has clearly demonstrated to me that perl is the right tool for this
kind of job.

From the RFC 952 format file, the standard Berkeley UNIX utility "htable"
will generate both /etc/hosts and /etc/networks.  This is the procedure
used at Yale.  The current LOCAL.TXT file is periodically retrieved
from NIC.DDN.MIL, combined with the Yale-maintained LOCAL.TXT file, and
passed through "htable" to get the standard /etc/hosts file.

	- Alan S. Watt
	  High Speed Networking, Yale University
	  Computing and Information Systems
	  Box 2112 Yale Station
	  New Haven, CT  06520-2112
	  (203) 432-6600 X394
	  Watt-Alan@Yale.Edu


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