Bug#284755: acknowledged by developer (Re: Bug#284755: exim4: Default localhost description in /etc/hosts causes Exim to send HELO localhost.localdomain)

[Ivar Zarans]

On Wed, Dec 08, 2004 at 07:38:44AM -0800, Debian Bug Tracking System wrote:

> > then Exim uses "localhost.localdomain" as name in HELO command.
> [...]
> 
> No, it does not. It uses the hostname of the local machine, as given
> by
> hostname --fqdn
> and set in /etc/hostname.
> 
> If your machine thinks its FQDN is localhost.localdomain it is
> misconfigured.

My apologies, it appears to be bug (or misunderstanding) in hostname and
/etc/hosts file. At some moment we added "gw" as alias to 127.0.0.1.
If /etc/hosts has local host name (here "gw") as one of aliases for
127.0.0.1, then hostname gets confused.

Examples:

/etc/hosts: 127.0.0.1   localhost.localdomain   localhost   gw
$ hostname --fqdn
$ localhost.localdomain

/etc/hosts: 127.0.0.1   localhost.localdomain   localhost   test
$ hostname --fqdn
$ gw.reisiekspert.ee

/etc/hosts: 127.0.0.1   localhost.localdomain   localhost   test  gw
$ hostname --fqdn
$ localhost.localdomain

/etc/hosts: 127.0.0.1   localhost.localdomain   localhost
$ hostname --fqdn
$ gw.reisiekspert.ee

/etc/hosts: 127.0.0.1   localhost
$ hostname --fqdn
$ gw.reisiekspert.ee


-- 
Best regards,
Ivar Zarans