[PLUG] qmail hostname and domain confusion

[Rich Shepard]

On Sun, 13 Nov 2005, Brian & Lori Nordlund wrote:

> However, the way I read it there seems to be some blur between the hostname
> of the server and the domain being served. To start, there is a section
> explaining that if
> # hostname --fqdn
> returns "localhost" that I should check /etc/hostname or /etc/hosts and my
> DNS to make sure "everything is correct".  Then once I have "checked" then
> edit the config files in /var/qmail/control.  There is also a reference that
> the file /var/qmail/control/me should contain the hostname.  Now for the
> confusion:

Brian,

   The hostname should be the name of the machine itself, not just
'localhost.' If it's a fully-qualified domain name (FQDN), then it would be
of the form mehost.example.com; localhost.localdomain is a synonym.

> There are samples of what the /var/qmail/control files should contain, which
> is where I get confused.  There are examples to be used if you are doing a
> "2nd level domain" followed by examples for doing a third level domain:

> 2nd level domain examples:
> # hostname --fqdn
> should return "wh0rd.org"
> # cat me
> should contain "wh0rd.org"
> # cat defaultdomain
> should contain "wh0rd.org"
> # cat plusdomain
> should contain "wh0rd.org"
> # cat locals
> should contain "wh0rd.org"
> # cat rcpthosts
> should contain "wh0rd.org"

   Your domain should be your equivalent of example.com. The hostname is the
particular host that holds the mail server (MTA).

> Now tell me if I'm a complete loon, but it looks to me like we are mixing
> the definition of host and domain.  In order to force # hostname --fqdn to
> return "wh0rd.org" wouldn't I be using a domain name for my server?  Maybe
> the example for 3rd level domains is a little less confusing:

   See above; first paragraph.

> .....Starting here, I will be referring to my real domain name
> ("towermonky.com") rather than the "wh0rd.org"  from the howto.......

   Then your domain name is towermonky.com and the FQDN would be
mail.towermonky.com (or the actual name of the machine.)

Rich

-- 
Richard B. Shepard, Ph.D.               |   Author of "Quantifying Environmental
Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. (TM)   |  Impact Assessments Using Fuzzy Logic"
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