On 05/20/2010 03:45 PM, Nelson H. F. Beebe wrote: > We noticed recently that Ubuntu's /bin/hostname has this option > > -b, --boot set default hostname if none available > > and uses it in /etc/init/hostname.conf. > > However, the GNU version from coreutils-1.8 lacks that option.
coreutils 1.8 doesn't exist. Did you mean coreutils 8.5? > > Unfortunately, Ubuntu's startup script puts /usr/local/bin ahead of > /bin and /usr/bin, thus getting a version of hostname that chokes on > the -b option. We patched the configuration file to force an explicit > path: > > exec /bin/hostname -b -F /etc/hostname Correct - Ubuntu's script is buggy if it uses non-standard options without an explicit path to a version of the utility known to provide those options. > > Would it be reasonable to consider adding support in coreutils for the -b > option? How would we (portably) implement it? The problem is that coreutils' hostname has to compile on many more platforms than just Ubuntu, and there are just too many distro-specific actions (or even lack of OS interfaces altogether) for setting a default hostname. > [I'm not urging that this be done, merely that it be discussed. In my > view, Ubuntu is at fault for introducing nonstandard options, and > messing up the boot PATH, and failing to use explicit paths on > critical boot-time commands. Your view is correct. -- Eric Blake [email protected] +1-801-349-2682 Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org
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