Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!uunet!munnari.oz.au!cs.mu.OZ.AU!cs.mu.oz.au!kre From: kre@cs.mu.oz.au (Robert Elz) Newsgroups: comp.mail.sendmail Subject: Re: More problems with sendmail/IDA and DECnet Message-ID: Date: 11 Jun 91 21:14:53 GMT References: <1991Jun10.182322.24341@ulowell.ulowell.edu> <1991Jun10.214235.23180@mp.cs.niu.edu> <1991Jun11.173526.15436@njitgw.njit.edu> <1991Jun11.182958.18722@mp.cs.niu.edu> Sender: news@cs.mu.OZ.AU Organization: Comp Sci, University of Melbourne, Australia Lines: 26 rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes: > Or perhaps the whole idea of using that file (/etc/svc.conf) is wrong. Yes. >Could it be that the appropriate order for interactive commands ... No, I don't think that's it, you do want consistent answers. Its just that there is no excuse at all for not using the DNS exclusively when its available. What's more, if the DNS doesn't answer (or doesn't answer soon enough), or says "host unknown", or "name exists but no data", its simply wrong to go and try some other lookup method. Only if the DNS is not operating at all (ie: during boot) should anything else be used, and that should be /etc/hosts, which need contain mappings for just those few hosts needed to mount filesystems to get the DNS started. What svc.conf should do is specify which of the lookup methods to use. That way people without the DNS can configure the system to use /etc/hosts (or, if they're really desperate, YP - I'd prefer to set up a private DNS than that). Specfiying the order in which they're to be used is just wrong. kre