Bug 665962 - /etc/host.conf is obsolete
Summary: /etc/host.conf is obsolete
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED NOTABUG
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
Classification: Red Hat
Component: setup
Version: 5.6
Hardware: Unspecified
OS: Unspecified
low
medium
Target Milestone: rc
: ---
Assignee: Ondrej Vasik
QA Contact: qe-baseos-daemons
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2010-12-28 05:44 UTC by ritz
Modified: 2011-05-09 06:50 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

Fixed In Version:
Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
: 665964 (view as bug list)
Environment:
Last Closed: 2011-01-03 11:53:17 UTC
Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description ritz 2010-12-28 05:44:53 UTC
Description of problem:
/etc/host.conf gives no indication that it has been deprecated. Adding comment to the file would be helpful for new users.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
setup

How reproducible:
always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. cat /etc/host.conf
  
Actual results:
no indication it is deprecated

Expected results:
Should be documented in man pages, /etc/host.conf file itself

Additional info:
reference - https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=144687

Comment 1 Ondrej Vasik 2011-01-03 11:53:17 UTC
Well - I tend to say this is NOTABUG - as /etc/host.conf is still in use in
glibc. Anyway - man page documenting host.conf
file is coming from man-pages package and glibc resolve/res_hconf.c still uses
/etc/host.conf - so I think https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=144687
is no longer correct.

Feel free to explain why it should be considered deprecated - and discuss this
with glibc maintainer - Andreas Schwab - first. Closing NOTABUG - file still in
use (and res_hconf.c uses it by default - with no use of nsswitch.conf).

Comment 2 Siddhesh Poyarekar 2011-04-21 07:21:42 UTC
host.conf is in fact used by glibc and is not completely obsolete. But there is no
reason for it to be installed by default with the line:

order bind,hosts

since the order keyword is precisely the one that does not do anything anymore.
Keeping this intact in a default installation gives the wrong impression that
the line is in use.

At the minimum, we could remove this 'order' line and install a blank file in
case removal of the file creates confusion about the file not being in use at
all.

Can we reopen this bz?


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