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From: bostic@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU (Keith Bostic)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: aliases in .rhosts
Message-ID: <21654@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Fri, 6-Nov-87 23:11:48 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.21654
Posted: Fri Nov  6 23:11:48 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 9-Nov-87 02:36:57 EST
References: <11488@orchid.waterloo.edu>
Distribution: comp
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
Lines: 13
Summary: this isn't a good idea

In article <11488@orchid.waterloo.edu>, gamiddleton@orchid.UUCP writes:
> In 4.3bsd, in your .rhosts file, you have to list remote machines by their
> real name (rather than any aliases).  Here is a change to rcmd.c in libc to
> allow machine aliases.  Can anybody think of a reason not to do this?

Yes, I can think of a *very* good reason not to make the change that
you proposed!  On hosts using the nameserver, your change results
in a message exchange with the nameserver for each line in the .rhosts
file!  If any of the hosts listed are remote, and the correct servers
aren't reachable, this will result in a 45-second pause while attempting
to canonicalize each such name.  Don't do it!

		Mike C33B
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