Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!columbia!cs!jordan
From: jordan@cs.columbia.edu (Jordan Hayes)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Reconciling /etc/hosts, yp, and named?
Message-ID: <213@cs.columbia.edu>
Date: 18 May 89 17:31:24 GMT
References: <8905161521.AA02497@dsys.icst.nbs.gov>
Reply-To: jordan@cs.columbia.edu (Jordan Hayes)
Followup-To: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Organization: Citibank, NA NYC, NY (212) 735-7539
Lines: 21

Root Boy Jim <rbj@DSYS.ICST.NBS.GOV> writes:

	Simpler to just use one name, and use naked IP addresses on the
	ifconfigs.

The DNS was created to make things easier.  Using IP addresses doesn't
make things easier.  If you have two IP addresses on the same machine,
name them uniquely and put the following data into your database:

foo		IN	A	128.253.5.1
		IN	A	128.253.6.1
foo-gw		IN	A	128.253.6.1

That way, if I ask for "foo", I get two addresses to try.  If I ask for
foo-gw, I get the right one.  Your hostname (for any kind of external
identification) should be "foo" -- the only problem this leaves us is
what to do about the reverse lookup.  Possibilities include returning
"foo" for either address (good for continuity), or returning the
interface-specific name (good for troubleshooting and correctness).

/jordan