On 28/07/14 09:40 AM, Joachim Breitner wrote: > > BTW, what should the FQDN even be here? My laptop doesn’t have a FQDN > that resolves to it, so the concept seems to be dubious at least.
Actually unless your laptop is not connected to a network via DHCP there is a 90% probability that if libnss-hostname is not installed that you will resolve to <DHCP-hostname>.<DHCP-handed-out-domain>. DHCP almost always hands out a domain which is used to create an FQDN for devices connected to that network. If the DHCP server does not auto-update the DNS server with the client supplied hostname from the laptop then it is possible you will fail to have DNS resolution but that is because DNS doesn't know about your laptop not because you don't and/or can't have an FQDN. The issue with laptops and mobile devices is not that that they do not have a domain (and hence FQDN) but that not all routers automatically create local DNS entries AND the domain depends on what work the device is attached to and hence is a changeable beast. From the perspective of the network administrator of properly administred network the FQDN makes perfect sense, the issue is that on a lot of home networks the FQDN is of little value - OTOH the hostname is also of little or no value on such network and really that isn't a good argument for ditching FQDN. The changeable nature of FQDN for mobile devices means that it would be silly to rely on client-reported FQDN without some sort of verification of the device, but that is an entirely separate issue from having an FQDN in the first place. The fact is that any argument against FQDN on a mobile device could be made about hostname on mobile device. So forget about mobile devices in the argument and consider that lack of FQDN breaks important and core things like email on permanently connected networks. Dealing with mobile devices is what things like SMTP-AUTH are for, but that does not invalidate the usefulness or importance of FQDN as a concept nor as something that should be considered broken any more than hostnames themselves. Regards, Daniel Re
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