openssh-2.9p2, short hostnames

[openssh-unix-dev at thewrittenword.com]

On Tue, Oct 02, 2001 at 09:32:18AM +0200, Hans Werner Strube wrote:
> >
> > > > For systems where the local hostname is obtained as a short name without
> > > > domain, there should be a ssh_config option "DefaultDomain" as in ssh-3.x
> > > > from ssh.com.
> > > Below there is a patch which implements this. But it does not abort (as
> > > ssh-3.x does) if the host name is not FQDN, since within the local net
> > > there is no need for this. By making the config entry conditional for names
> > > with dots, a short "chost" name can be used within the local net and the
> > > FQDN otherwise:
> > > Host *.*
> > >    DefaultDomain my.local.net
> > > Host *
> > > #  no DefaultDomain
> > 
> > I don't think it is a good idea to hack _ssh_ to support this.  Why don't
> > you use FQDN's as hostnames like most of the other people?
> 
> For instance, because FQDNs blow up the netgroup entries. Then large
> netgroups would be difficult to treat with NIS, since the NIS ndbm records
> are limited to 1024 bytes. This is a historical burden of Solaris. Also it
> is usually much more convenient to work with short names *within* a local
> network. (Well, I know, in principle you are right, and some PD programs
> have difficulties constructing the FQDN then ...)

While the length of a key's value is 1024 bytes, you can break the
value so it references other *keys* and therefore work around this
limitation. If you generate the NDBM maps directly from text files
though, your kinda screwed unless you somehow automate this process.

-- 
albert chin (china at thewrittenword.com)