IP address variable

[John Miller]

Bill Gradwohl wrote:
> I was being facetious - I wasn't actually asking a question.
> 
> And, DNS isn't for assigning IP addresses, dynamically or any other way. 
> That's DHCP's job. DNS is a way of associating names with IP addresses.

Right.  I was thinking of DHCP.  Senior moment.

> If one were to stuff a box's eth0 IP address in its hosts file, what 
> purpose would it serve? If you then change the IP address you then also 
> have to remember to change the hosts entry.  

My earlier comment stands, if you substitute DHCP for DNS.  The hosts 
file is for (more-or less) permanently-assigned addresses.  Yes, it's 
unneeded for dynamic (DHCP-assigned) addresses.

> The hosts file is useful only if you don't have access to DNS, and only 
> then for addresses that are foreign to the box itself. The hosts file is 
> largely a pre DNS relic.

Well, pre-DNS, for sure, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it a relic. 
  It's just the ticket for those addresses that are nailed down.  Many 
admins like to do that for some or all of their local machines.  (Your 
own /etc/host.conf file still includes something like "order hosts 
bind," doesn't it?)